Maybank's profit up, but remains cautious amid challenging environment

Abdul Farid: ‘There are signs of stability in commodity prices but it will take some time before these are translated into cashflow.’

KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank), backed by a 43% rise in net profit for its fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2016, remains cautious on the outlook of the sector amid the challenging environment.

The 43% year-on-year gain to RM2.36bil was helped by a one-off gain from the sale of securities. However, even after stripping out the extraordinary gain, the country’s biggest banking group registered a net profit growth of 15.9%.