Public Bank Group retains robust upwards momentum

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KUCHING: Public Bank Group announced it has achieved yet another milestone financial results in 2012 with a record pre-tax profit of RM5.10 billion, surpassing the RM5 billion mark for the first time and net profit attributable to shareholders of RM3.87 billion.

According to a press release, founder and chairman of Public Bank Group, Tan Sri Dr Teh Hong Piow highlighted, “As a result of the retrospective application of Malaysia Financial Reporting Standard (MFRS) 139, the comparative pre-tax profit and net profit for 2011 were restated upwards by RM267 million and RM200 million to RM4.88 billion and RM3.68 billion respectively.

“The group’s pre-tax profit and net profit for 2012 were 4.6 per cent and five per cent higher than the restated corresponding profits in the prior year.”

He further noted, excluding the effects of the restatement, the group’s pre-tax profit and net profit for 2012 increased by 10.7 per cent and 11.1 per cent respectively.”

Additionally, Public Bank Group outlined that its balance sheet position remained strong and continued to be supportive of loans growth.

Teh said, “Maintaining upward momentum, the group’s gross loans grew by 11.3 per cent during the year to RM198 billion as at the end of 2012, with domestic loans growing at a faster pace of 12.5 per cent over the same period.

“The loan growth were funded mainly by customer deposits which also recorded a steady growth of 12.3 per cent, with domestic customer deposits increasing by 13 per cent in 2012, resulting in a stable and healthy loan-to-deposit ratio of 87.1 per cent as at the end of 2012.”

The strong loan growth in 2012 lead to the group’s loan impairment allowance declined by 14.5 per cent with an improved gross impaired loan ratio of 0.7 per cent, Teh said.

“The group’s strong asset quality was attributed to its consistent adoption of stringent credit policies and effectiveness in credit assessment, approval, monitoring and recovery processes,” he added.

Teh also highlited Public Bank Group continued to be in the fore front amongst its banking peers in Malaysia in terms of recording the highest net return on equity of 24.5 per cent and maintaining the lowest gross impaired loan ratio of 0.7 per cent as well as lowest cost-to-income ratio of 30.5 per cent.