Bursa Malaysia posts RM355mil earnings in FY21

KUALA LUMPUR: Bursa Malaysia Bhd’s net profit decreased to RM355.25mil for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2021 (FY21), a 6% drop from RM377.74mil a year ago.

The stock exchange operator’s revenue declined to RM767.54mil from RM798.97mil.

“This is mainly due to lower operating revenue of RM751.63mil in FY21 compared to RM778.81mil in FY20, a decrease of 3.5%,” it said in a stock exchange filing.

Total operating expenses in FY21 was lower by 1.1% at RM288.6mil against RM291.8mil in FY20. It also declared a final dividend of 17 sen per share, amounting to about RM137.6mil, bringing the total dividend payout for FY21 to 41 sen per share, which includes the interim dividend of 24 sen paid out in August 2021.

For the fourth quarter, the stock exchange’s net profit was lower at RM64.95mil from RM104.85mil a year ago.

Revenue slipped to RM165.18mil from RM230.70mil previously, Bernama reported.

Bursa Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Abdul Wahid Omar said the exchange demonstrated great resilience and performed well throughout the year, notwithstanding that FY21 proved to be a challenging year globally.

“We continued to witness active trading for securities on our stock exchange, at an average daily trading value of RM3.5bil.

“In addition, we recorded 30 initial public offerings in FY21 compared to only 19 in FY20, which raised a total of RM2.7bil,” he said.

As such, he said the numbers were testaments that companies and investors were confident in the Malaysian capital market and the exchange as a platform for their fundraising and investing needs.

For FY21, the securities market registered a trading revenue of RM442.9mil compared to RM498.9mil in FY20, a decrease of 11.2% due to lower average daily trading value for on-market transactions and direct business transactions.

Derivatives market trading revenue decreased by 4.1% to RM87.3mil in FY21 from RM91.1mil in FY20, despite a record high of 18.4 million total contracts traded last year, surpassing the previous high of 18.2 million total contracts registered in 2020.

Meanwhile, market data revenue increased by 12.2% to RM54.0mil in FY21 from RM48.1mil in FY20, contributed by higher numbers of subscribers.

Chief executive officer Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift said the securities market continues to show long-term growth and provides compelling investment opportunities.

“As for the derivatives market, we will explore new products while revamping existing ones in order to meet the evolving needs of market participants while enhancing its attractiveness to global players,” he said.

He said Bursa Malaysia will continue to expand the Islamic capital market by developing new syariah-compliant products and services while exploring product expansion across the value chain of Islamic wealth management solutions.