TD Banknorth parent sees profit growth

TORONTO – Profit jumped 19 percent at Canada’s Toronto Dominion Bank in its second quarter on a strong performance across its personal and commercial banking segments. The results beat analyst forecasts, and the company said it would exceed previous estimates for 2007.

The parent of Portland, Maine-based TD Banknorth said Thursday it earned 879 million Canadian dollars ($813 million) or 1.20 Canadian dollars a share in the quarter ended April 30, up from 738 million Canadian dollars, or 1.01 Canadian dollars per share, during the same period in the prior year.

Revenue rose 12 percent to 3.5 billion Canadian dollars ($3.2 billion). The bank’s total assets expanded by 2 percent to 397 billion Canadian dollars ($367 billion).

Excluding one-time items such as restructuring charges, the bank said its adjusted earnings were 995 million Canadian dollars ($921 million) or 1.36 Canadian dollars per share. On that basis the results exceeded the Thomson Financial average analyst expectation of 1.25 Canadian dollars per share.

“TD delivered another excellent earnings performance in the second quarter,” said CEO Ed Clark. “We’ll well exceed our earnings objectives for 2007.”

The quarter’s profit gain was led by wholesale banking, including investment banking and trading, which raised its earnings by 55 percent to 217 million Canadian dollars ($201 million).

Profits in Canadian personal and commercial banking increased 16 percent to 540 million Canadian dollars ($500 million), while TD’s wealth management unit boosted its profit by 30 percent to 197 million Canadian dollars ($182 million) riding strong growth in the mutual fund and advisory businesses.

U.S. personal and commercial banking was the slack segment, earning 23 million Canadian dollars ($21 million), down from 59 million Canadian dollars a year ago.