KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Building Society Bhd’s (MBSB) net profit more than doubled to RM356.69 million in the fourth quarter (Q4) ended December 31, 2019 from RM117.96 million recorded in the same quarter a year ago.
Its revenue in Q4 increased 15.3 per cent to RM784.14 million from RM680.37 million.
For the full financial year 2019, MBSB’s net profit increased 11.6 per cent to RM716.9 million from RM642.4 million, underpinned by the impairment write back of RM211.67 million in Q4 mainly due to the refinement on Expected Credit Loss (ECL) model for loans, financing and advances.
Its revenue in 2019 grew 5.2 per cent to RM3.01 billion from RM2.86 billion, driven by treasury income from financial investments.
Group president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaini Othman said the company has executed various initiatives to better serve its products and services and managed to gain traction.
“We remained resilient and held up well against the challenging economic environment,” he said in a statement today.
Besides that, MBSB’s cost to income ratio improved to 28.37 per cent from 29.53 per cent in financial year 2018.
The group’s deposit showed positive growth by 9.45 per cent to RM35.89 billion in financial year 2019 compared to RM32.79 billion in financial year 2018. Financing loss coverage ratio is at 102.64 per cent.
Moving forward, Ahmad Zaini said the group is taking cognisant of the unfavourable factors currently affecting the economy, especially the Covid-19 virus and the political landscape.
“We have taken the necessary steps to manage these risks as well as putting in place the initiatives to accommodate customers who are distressed by the negative impact of Covid-19.
“Our business diversification into other sectors for example, Renewable Energy (RE) has also shown results as we have granted financing facilities amounting to over half a billion ringgit to certain key players,” he said.
Meanwhile, MBSB said MBSB Bank is also well on its way to achieve its three year technology transformation plan and will launch its e-wallet soon.