Group president and CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said the continuous growth in the group
KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd
posted a strong set of earnings in the first quarter ended March 31, 2017 which rose 19.3% to RM1.702bil from RM1.436bil a year ago.
Maybank, which is South East Asia’s fourth largest bank by assets, said on Thursday it booked more loans and benefitted from an improved net interest margin as well as substantially lower net impairment losses.
Profit before tax was 16.5% higher at RM2.25bil from RM1.93bil a year earlier. Its revenue was up nearly 1% to RM11.28bil from RM11.18bil a year ago. Earnings per share were 16.73 sden compared with 14.64 sen.
It said gross loans rose 10.1% on-year with financing from both the Community Financial Services (CFS) and Global Banking (GB) segments showing healthy expansion.
“Malaysian operations led this growth with a 7.2% increase, followed by Indonesia and Singapore at 7.0% and 6.4% respectively,” it said
Its net operating income rose 3% to RM5.55bil on-year, underpinned by a 21.4% increase from Islamic banking, 18.3% from insurance and takaful and 9.0% from community financial services. This was attributable to a strong 8.6% increase in net fund based income to RM4.12 billion from RM3.79 billion a year earlier. It was, however, partly offset by a decline in net fee based income to RM1.44 billion from RM1.6 billion arising mainly from unrealised losses on derivatives which are marked-to-market.
The banking group said deposits rose 4.5% on-year to RM513.4bil, attributable to a 7.1% increase in the international operations and a 2.8% rise from Malaysian operations.
“This helped lift the group current account and savings account (CASA) ratio to 37.1% from 33.3% a year earlier, and reduced the cost of funding which helped improve the net interest margin for the quarter by 9 bps to 2.43% compared with 2.34% a year earlier,” it said.
Importantly, net impairment losses for the quarter fell significantly by 38.2% to RM542.8mil.
The sharp decline was because the group continued to realise the benefits from the proactive stance taken since early last year to restructure and reschedule the credit facilities of customers impacted by the challenging economic environment.
Maybank chairman Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin said she was pleased with the encouraging first quarter performance, which validates the rigorous profitability and asset quality measures adopted over the last year.
“Leveraging on our extensive franchise and strong balance sheet, we are confident that this growth momentum will gain traction as we continue to support the region’s economic development, particularly in the consumer and infrastructure segments,” she said.
Group president and CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said the continuous growth in the group’s top line reflected Maybank inherent resilience and ability to grow as a result of its diversified operations.
“While we aim to build up our growth momentum in the coming quarters, we will, nevertheless, continue to be watchful over further impact to our clients from changes in the operating environment, and actively support them in managing their risks.
“At the same time, our focus will remain on enhancing staff productivity, managing costs efficiently and strengthening our liquidity and capital position to sustain our performance in the future.”
Limited time offer:
Just RM5 per month.
