Maybank declares huge final dividend

Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) reported a drop in its fourth quarter net profit as a result of writing down long-standing non-performing loans but declared a huge final dividend of 60 sen a share that, together with its interim payouts, exceeded the bank's net profit for the whole year. 

The country's largest bank, which posted higher full-year net profit for its 2005 financial year from a year ago, believes loans growth for its financial year ending June 2006 would be around 8%, compared with 9.8% last year.