KUCHING: BIMB Holdings Bhd’s (BIMB) acquisition of 49 per cent equity interest in Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd has boosted its net income for financial year 2014 (FY14).
The company told Bursa Malaysia yesterday that its net income in FY14 jumped 91 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM532.33 million. At the same time, the financial institution also said its net income after tax in the fourth quarter of 2014 (4Q14) soared 156 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM153.91 million.
BIMB added its turnover in FY14 grew 5.6 per cent y-o-y to RM2.97 billion while revenue in 4Q14 increased by 4.4 per cent y-o-y to RM761 million.
Meanwhile, BIMB in a press statement said it recorded a decrease of RM4 million or 0.5 per cent in consolidated income before zakat and tax in FY14 compared with FY13.
The financial institution explained that the decrease was attributed to the RM68.2 million financing cost of sukuk raised by BIMB to partly fund the acquisition of 49 per cent equity interest in Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd in December 2013.
As a result of the acquisition, BIMB pointed out that its net income attributable to shareholders for FY14 increased by RM253 million or 91 per cent.
Consequently, BIMB noted that its earnings per share (EPS) for FY14 also increased by 37.9 per cent to 35.64 sen per share from 25.84 sen per share. Additionally, BIMB revealed that its net financing assets grew by RM5.8 billion or 24.4 per cent y-o-y to reach RM29.5 billion as at end of December 2014.
At the same time, the financial institution pointed out that its fund based income from financing also increased by RM234.7 million or 17.3 per cent.
Nonetheless, BIMB noted its non-fund based income increased slightly by 2.9 per cent or RM8.4 million mainly from foreign exchange transactions and net gain from sale of financial assets available-for-sale.
As at end of December 2014, BIMB said its customer deposits stood at RM41 billion with an increase of RM3.8 billion or 10.1 per cent y-o-y, whilst the current and savings accounts (CASA) also reported an increase of RM1.1 billion or 7.3 per cent y-o-y.
Similarly, BIMB said its CASA ratio as at end December 2014 was 38.1 per cent, higher than the banking industry’s CASA ratio at 25.6 per cent for the same period.
Moreover, BIMB noted its gross impaired financing ratio as at end of December 2014 improved to 1.14 per cent compared with 1.18 per cent as at end of December 2013.
The banking system’s gross impaired ratio was at 1.66 per cent as at end of December 2014.
Thus, BIMB said the bank’s key performance indicators as at end of December 2014 was better compared with the banking system’s ratios.
On another note, BIMB said its 60.5 per cent owned Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd’s (Takaful Malaysia) profit before zakat and tax increased by 8.2 per cent in FY14 to RM188 million compared with RM173.7 million in the same corresponding period last year.
The banking group explained that the higher income was attributable to lower management expenses, commissions and expense reserves.
Meanwhile, BIMB noted Takaful Malaysia’s operating revenue decreased by 3.5 per cent y-o-y to RM1.65 billion in FY14, compared with RM1.71 billion in FY13.
BIMB explained that the decrease was attributed to lower sales generated by the family takaful business segment.
For the twelve months period ended December 2014, BIMB said Takaful Malaysia’s family takaful business recorded gross earned contributions of RM958.1 million compared with RM1.1 billion for the same corresponding period last year.
The company pointed out that the decrease in family takaful’s gross earned contributions was attributed to lower sales from the group family products segment.
Takaful Malaysia’s general takaful recorded gross earned contributions of RM457.4 million in FY14 compared with RM425 million in FY13.
For FY14, the surplus transfer from general takaful was RM59 million compared with RM49.3 million in the same corresponding period last year. This was due to lower claims incurred.