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Scotiabank has focused on adding deposits and expanding in commercial lending within Canada, while benefiting from efforts to bulk up its credit-card business. Chief Executive Officer Brian Porter made increasing its Canadian card operations a priority in 2014, along with getting bigger in Mexico, Chile, Peru and Colombia. Toronto-based Scotiabank has operations in more than 50 countries, making it Canada’s most international lender.

Earlier Tuesday, Scotiabank made a $2.9 billion binding offerto buy Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA’s Chilean bank to double its stake in the country. BBVA intends to accept the offer for its 68.2 per cent stake in the unit and Scotiabank will proceed with a bid for the remaining shares, Spain’s second-biggest lender said in a statement. It has informed the Said family, owner of 31.6 per cent of the unit, that it can exercise a right of first refusal over the shares or sell its stake to Scotiabank under the same terms.

BBVA Chile has about US$29 billion in total assets, $19 billion of total net loans, 4,000 employees and 127 branches, Scotiabank said in a statement.

Here’s a quick summary of key numbers from Scotiabank’s fourth-quarter results:

• Net income rose 2.9 per cent to $2.07 billion, or $1.64 a share, from $2.01 billion, or $1.57, a year earlier.

• Scotiabank said adjusted earnings were $1.65 a share, while the average estimate of 15 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was $1.67 a share.

• Canadian banking profit climbed to $1.07 billion from $954 million a year earlier.

• Total annual profit increased 12 per cent to a record $8.24 billion.

• Total revenue rose 0.9 per cent to $6.81 billion, missing analysts’ $7.1 billion estimate.

• Earnings from international banking rose 6.6 per cent to $660 million from a year earlier, while the global banking and markets unit reported profit of $391 million, down 15 per cent.

Bloomberg.com