Topic: How To Invest

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $52.46 – Toronto symbol BNS

BANK OF NOVA SCOTIA $52.46 (Toronto symbol BNS: Shares outstanding: 1.1 billion; Market cap: $57.7 billion; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; Div. yield: 4.4%, www.scotiabank.com) has agreed to buy ING Bank of Canada, which operates as ING Direct, from Netherlands-based ING Group.

ING Direct offers a wide variety of no-fee banking services, mainly over the Internet. It has 1.8 million customers and $30 billion in deposits. Bank of Nova Scotia will keep ING Direct as a separate business.

The bank will pay $3.1 billion for ING Direct when the deal closes in December 2012. However, ING Direct holds cash of $1.2 billion, so the real cost is around $1.9 billion.

Separately, the bank reported that its earnings per share before one-time items rose 10.9% in the three months ended July 31, 2012, to $1.22 from $1.10. Earnings rose at all four of its divisions: Canadian Banking, International Banking, Wealth Management, and Global Banking and Markets.

In response to weaker economic conditions overseas, Bank of Nova Scotia set aside $402 million to cover bad loans in the latest quarter. That’s up 60.8% from $250 million a year earlier. Even so, bad loans were just 0.55% of its total loans, down from 0.66% a year earlier.

The bank also raised its quarterly dividend by 3.6%, to $0.57 a share from $0.55. It now yields 4.4%.

Bank of Nova Scotia is a buy.

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