Net profit of the Thai lender was up 62% year-on-year to 595.67 million baht (RM76.77mil).
PETALING JAYA: CIMB Thai Bank PCL’s robust results in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2024 (3Q24) are expected to contribute positively to parent CIMB Group Holdings Bhd
, says MIDF Research.
Net profit of the Thai lender was up 62% year-on-year to 595.67 million baht (RM76.77mil) on gains from financial instruments and operating income, bringing nine-month ended Sept 30, 2024 (9M24) profitability to 1.89 billion baht.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the 3Q24 robust results by CIMB Thai as we previously had yet to see a meaningful turnaround,” the research house said in a report yesterday.
“We expect that this set of results will contribute positively to the group’s 9M24 performance.”
CIMB Group owns a 94.83% stake in the Thai lender, which contributed 4% to the group’s pre-tax profit in the first half of financial year 2024.
The research house noted that asset quality improved for the Thai subsidiary, while non-interest income and service fees had offset the decline in net interest income due to net interest margin compression.
Operating expenditure rose 6.5% from a year ago due to a higher impairment loss on properties for sale.
However, MIDF Research said lower personnel expenses helped to mitigate some of this impact.
“As such, the cost-to-income ratio was slightly higher at 61.7% in 9M24 compared to 60.6% in 9M23.”
As at end-9M24, CIMB Thai’s total gross loans grew 2.7% year-to-date (y-t-d).
On the other hand, deposits saw a decrease of 8.6% y-t-d.
The research house said it keeps earnings forecasts unchanged for CIMB Group.
“Maintain ‘buy’ with an unchanged target price of RM9.11 based on a price to-book value of 1.29 times for financial year 2025.”
