Deutsche Bank Upgrades BCH And SAN To Hold

Deutsche Bank is upgrading Banco De Chile BCH and Santander Chile SAN to Hold, as the Chilean banks are now trading at 4.4x trailing book value, down from a peak of 5.5x reached in mid-September. “While still at a significant premium to their peers, we think this is partially justified by continued strong ROAEs (DBe of 28% in 2011), the highest in the region,” Deutsche Bank writes. “Furthermore, loan growth in 2011 should benefit from a strong economy and asset quality should remain under control.” Banco De Chile currently trades at $85.16; Santander Chile trades at $91.58.