KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) chalked up a pre-tax profit of RM1.894 billion in the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, up 20.2 per cent from RM1.575 billion posted in the same quarter last year.
Revenue improved to RM6.658 billion during the period under review, from RM5.128 billion registered in the corresponding quarter.
“We are heartened by the continued growth that we are seeing across our network as it reaffirms our conviction that there are always new opportunities to sustain our growth momentum,” president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said in a statement yesterday.
“We remain focused on growing responsibly and profitably, and believe that our diversified markets give us the ability to mitigate the impact of the global economic slowdown,” he added.
In Malaysia, Abdul Wahid said, the bank was seeing traction from the Economic Transformation Programme as reflected in the robust growth of its corporate banking segment.
“Concurrently with initiatives to grow our business, we are accelerating our transformation efforts to now include a Strategic Cost Management Programme that will help relieve pressure on topline achievements.
“At the same time, we are doubling our efforts to enhance service quality as well as embed the right risk culture to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency while improving our cost structure,” he said.
Net profit rose by 17.9 per cent to RM1.346 billion, in the first quarter, from RM1.142 billion recorded in same quarter in 2011.
The statement said the results were supported by sustained revenue growth across all business pillars led by strong revenue increase in investment banking, corporate banking, international banking and global markets operations.
It also included the results of Kim Eng Holdings which was not part of Maybank Group in the previous corresponding quarter.
The group continued to see gross loans growing during the quarter, albeit moderately, at 6.1 per cent on an annualised basis.
Key segments such as consumer, business, corporate banking and the Indonesian operations, however, maintained a more robust pace.
The moderating loan growth was offset by higher fee-based income arising from the Group’s diversified operations.
Loan-to-deposit ratio for the group remained healthy at 87.2 per cent.
The group also saw a 54.5 per cent rise in non-interest income (including net income from insurance business and fee income from Islamic operations) to RM1.65 billion, led by increase in investment and trading income (+238.8 per cent), fee income from Islamic operations (+175.4 per cent), foreign exchange profit (+99.3 per cent) and commissions, service charges and fees (+25.6 per cent). Its net fund based income grew 14.0 per cent to RM2.40 billion.
This was achieved despite a further tightening in net interest margin to 2.37 per cent during the quarter from 2.53 per cent in the six months ending December 2011.
The total group deposits recorded an annualised 8.3 per cent expansion to RM320.2 billion led by a 23.1 per cent rise in Singapore. Low-cost deposits (including current and savings accounts) now made up 33.6 per cent of total deposits.
Maybank also had an annualised growth of 10.6 per cent in total assets to RM463.3 billion.
During the quarter, the statement said, significant achievements were recorded in some business segments.
Maybank’s Global Wholesale Banking saw a 46.4 per cent rise in profit before tax (PBT) to RM928 million led by Global Markets (RM408 million), Corporate Banking (RM404 million) and Investment Banking (RM116 million).
The International Banking’s PBT went up 41.2 per cent from a year earlier to RM463 million, while the Insurance & Takaful business’ PBT rose by 22.4 per cent to RM100 million.
Maybank also recorded a robust 74.8 per cent rise in Group Islamic banking PBT and zakat to RM352.9 million. — Bernama