KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd, Southeast Asia’s fourth largest bank by assets, today says its net profit has risen 13.9 per cent to RM3.83 billion in the half-year ended June 30 2018, from RM3.36 billion previously.
This was buoyed by higher operating income, lower impairments as well as reduced overheads as a result of better cost management.
For the second quarter, its net profit surged 18.1 per cent to RM1.96 billion from RM1.66 billion a year ago, Maybank said in a statement.
“Despite the challenging global economic environment, operating income for the six months rose 3.2 per cent to RM11.67 billion, aided by steady growth in the group’s diversified operations and strong franchise across the region. This lifted pre-provisioning operating profit by 7.3 per cent to RM6.19 billion compared with a year earlier,” it added.
Maybank declared a higher single-tier interim dividend of 25 sen per share compared to 23 sen per share in the previous year, under its dividend reinvestment plan.
Consisting of a cash portion of 15 sen per share and an electable portion of 10 sen per share, the interim dividend will amount to a payout of RM2.74 billion, representing 71.4 per cent of net profit for the period.
Maybank chairman Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin said the results had reflected its strength and resilience in facing the evolving environment and the shift in the banking landscape.
“The group is confident that its strong market position and solid fundamentals will enable it to steer itself through the challenges as it seeks to continue delivering value to stakeholders.”
Group president and chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said notwithstanding the volatility in the current operating environment, Maybank continued to ride on the growing economy to strengthen its banking business as well as fulfil its growth strategy.
“The macro environment presented many challenges to the banking business this year where we saw a slight compression in net interest margin (NIM) due to our deliberate strategy to be defensive from a liquidity perspective in the first half of the year.
“We have demonstrated our ability to achieve growth even in the midst of significant geopolitical pressures, and we intend to leverage our strong brand equity, digital capabilities as well as our expertise and solid infrastructure to tap into growth opportunities and serve our customers better,” he explained.
Maybank’s net fee based income grew 7.4 per cent to RM3.28 billion, aided by higher income from Islamic banking operations, net earned insurance premiums and foreign exchange profits.
Its net fund based income, meanwhile, increased 1.6 per cent to RM8.39 billion, on the back of a 4.6 per cent rise in gross loans.
The group’s Singapore operations saw its loans expand a robust 8.9 per cent, followed by Indonesia at 6.6 per cent and Malaysia 6.1 per cent.
Maybank’s gross deposits, meanwhile, rose 5.5 per cent boosted by an 11.6 per cent rise in Singapore and a 10.1 per cent increase in Malaysia.