Maybank group president & CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said the banking group's strong franchise and resilient balance sheet enabled it to ride through the challenging period over the last few quarters.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd
posted record earnings of RM7.52bil and revenue of RM45.58bil for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017. It announced a final dividend of 32 sen a share, similar to a year ago.
Maybank, the country's largest lender, reported on Wednesday profit before tax (PBT) breached the RM10bil mark for the first time, coming in 14.2% higher at RM10.10bil, compared with the RM8.84bill a year earlier
Te earnings were up 11.5% from the RM6.74bil a year ago while revenue was up 2% from RM44.65bil.
For FY17, the group’s net operating income rose to a record RM23.27bil, boosted by a robust 18.7% increase from group insurance & takaful, 6.4% from group community financial services and 1.6% by group global banking.
“Pre-provisioning operating profit also hit a new high of RM11.91bil compared with RM11.69bil a year earlier. These were underpinned by a solid 10.3% increase in net fund based income to RM16.63bil from RM15.07bil a year earlier, which more than offset a 6.5% decline in net fee based income as a result of lower foreign exchange profit as well as investment and trading income,” it said.
In the fourth quarter, net profit was RM2.13bil compared with the normalised net profit of RM1.74bil in 4QFY16 (after eliminating exceptional one-off proceeds from the sale of securities in 2016).
Compared with Q3 FY17, the PBT and net profit for 4QFY17 was 9.3% and 5.2% higher respectively. Earnings per share were 19.93 sen compared with 23.19 sen.
Its revenue rose 4.8% to RM11.75bil from RM11.24bil.
Group president and CEO, Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said that discipline in pricing and a focused execution of its business plan throughout the year helped Maybank achieve its record performance for 2017.
“This year looks to be equally challenging as 2017 given the volatile markets we saw at the start of the year. We remain cautious of sudden shocks to the environment, and will maintain a prudent approach in pursuing growth by focusing on profitability as well as effective management of costs and liquidity, instead of just pursuing loans growth per se.”
“We continue to see growth opportunities in the different markets we serve, such as in wealth management, digital payments, Islamic banking and insurance which we intend to tap into and further strengthen our market share,” he said.
“We will also be relentless in pursuing our digital transformation agenda across our network, especially preparing our employees to keep abreast of the changes that the Industry 4.0 revolution brings.”
Maybank chairman, Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin said its strategy in managing risks well, maintaining a diversified portfolio, improving efficiency across the network as well as leveraging on digital capabilities have helped us to continue creating value for all our stakeholders.
“This achievement not only underscores our resilience but has also given us a sound platform to sustain the Group’s performance in today’s disruptive environment.”
It proposed a final dividend of 32 sen per share. The proposed dividend will comprise 18 sen per share to be paid in cash and an electable portion of 14 sen per share which can be reinvested into new ordinary shares or paid in cash.
Together with the 23 sen interim dividend declared earlier, this makes the full year pay-out at RM5.90bil or 78.5% of net profit, and translates into a dividend yield of 5.6%, maintaining Maybank’s status among banks offering the highest yields in the region.
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