(Adds share move, last paragraph)
By John Tilak
TORONTO, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Toronto Dominion Bank TD.TO
reported a higher quarterly profit on Thursday, with growth in
its domestic retail and capital markets divisions offsetting
concerns about the impact of depressed oil prices.
TD, Canada's biggest lender by assets, also took a
restructuring charge of C$349 million ($261.72 million) in the
fourth quarter ended on Oct. 31 for cost cuts. Reuters had
reported in October that the bank was laying off staff in Canada
and the United States following a companywide review.
Profit rose 15 percent at the bank's Canadian retail
division and 23 percent at its wholesale banking unit.
Despite investors' worries about the impact of a weak
economy and the oil price slide on the five biggest Canadian
banks, they all managed to beat market expectations for the
fourth quarter.
TD recorded C$99 million in impaired loans for the oil and
gas sector in the quarter, up from C$35 million in the third
quarter. As an allowance for credit losses in the energy
industry, the bank set aside C$25 million, compared with C$6
million in the third quarter.
TD has the smallest oil and gas exposure of the major
Canadian banks; the energy sector forms less than 1 percent of
its total loan portfolio.
The bank has not observed any surprises or causes for alarm
in the energy sector, Chief Financial Officer Colleen Johnston
said.
"Everything that we're seeing is very much in line with our
expectations," she said in an interview. "We're having a slight
increase in impaired (loans) but completely in line with our
expectations."
Johnston said the company expected to gain from the stronger
U.S. dollar and any potential rise in interest rates next year.
"We do expect to continue to have strong loan deposit and wealth
asset growth."
Net income rose to C$1.84 billion, or 96 Canadian cents per
share, from C$1.75 billion, or 91 Canadian cents a share, a year
earlier.
Excluding special items, earnings rose to C$1.14 per share.
Analysts on average had expected C$1.13, according to Thomson
Reuters I/B/E/S.
The stock slipped 1 percent in morning Toronto trading.
($1 = 1.3335 Canadian dollars)