Maybank Profit Soars

MALAYAN Banking Bhd (Maybank) reported a 15.9 per cent rise in its fourth quarter net profit to RM1.5 billion, in line with analysts’ expectations, propelling it to a record net profit for the full year.

The country’s biggest banking group by assets, which is also the fourth largest in Asean, saw net profit come in at RM5.7 billion for the last year ended December 31, up by 17.6 per cent from the previous year.

This was on the back of a 12 per cent increase in revenue to RM16.6 billion.

“The results were pretty much within our expectations, as with consensus,” said Cheah King Yoong, banking analyst and vice-president of equity research at Alliance Research.

Despite a softer global economy, growth in Asean, where Maybank's key markets of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are, was robust and this helped spur loans and deals, analysts noted.

While overall loans grew by a healthy 12.2 per cent, it came in below the group's target of 16.2 per cent. For this year, it is targeting a 12 per cent growth.

Its return-on-equity (ROE), a key measure of profitability, came in at 16 per cent, beating its target of 15.6 per cent. It set an ROE target of 15 per cent for this year.

President and group chief executive officer Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said Maybank's overseas operations accounted for 30 per cent of the group's profit before tax (PBT) of about RM7.9 billion, putting it "very much on track" to achieving a target of having 40 per cent of PBT from overseas business by 2015.

"We intend to raise the tempo in our regionalisation agenda, not only by leveraging on opportunities in existing markets but also in looking for new avenues where we can build a franchise," he told reporters at the results briefing here yesterday.

Maybank, which has a presence in 10 Asean member countries, has long been keen to acquire a bank in Thailand. However, valuations there have gone up, making any banking acquisition at the moment expensive.

"From a valuation basis, it's not quite conducive (to make an acquisition). We reckon, sometime, an opportunity will turn up," Abdul Wahid said.

Asked whether the group is keen on buying the Philippines' only Islamic bank, Al Amanah Islamic Bank, which is up for sale, he said: "At this moment, there are no plans."

Maybank's business momentum is expected to continue this year on the back of improved loans growth, higher non-interest income as a result of a "healthy" deal pipeline for the investment banking business and higher revenue from regional initiatives.

"The market with the highest growth potential for us would be Indonesia," said Abdul Wahid.

Last year, Maybank's net interest income rose by 11.3 per cent to RM8.5 billion, while non-interest income grew 17 per cent to RM5.3 billion. Its Islamic banking business grew by 26.9 per cent in PBT to RM1.3 billion.

The group proposed a final net dividend of 28.5 sen, bringing the total net dividend to about RM4.3 billion for the year, which represented 74.7 per cent of its net profit.

Maybank's share price rose by three sen to close at RM8.93 yesterday after the afternoon release of its results. The stock has shed 2.9 per cent so far this year compared with the stock market's benchmark index FBM KLCI's 4.4 per cent loss.

- BTimes