MBSB 3Q earnings surge 74% on lower loan impairment allowance

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 24): Malaysia Building Society Bhd’s (MBSB) net profit surged 73.9% to RM100.74 million in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2017 (3QFY17) from RM57.93 million a year ago, on lower allowance for loan impairment and lower cost of funds.

Earnings per share rose to 1.7 sen from 1.18 sen. Quarterly revenue, however, slipped 1.6% to RM816.87 million from RM830.25 million.

For the cumulative nine months, net profit increased 88.2% to RM293.14 million from RM155.77 million a year ago, despite a marginal 0.6% decline in revenue to RM2.44 billion from RM2.46 billion.

In a statement yesterday, MBSB president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaini Othman said the group will complete its impairment programme by the end of this year as targeted.

“We continue to advance towards the 70:30 asset composition between retail and corporate, with September position showing 78:22. Meanwhile, close to 90% of our asset portfolio are Islamic,” he added.

The group also expects to conclude the share purchase agreement with the shareholders of Asian Finance Bank (AFB) in the first quarter of 2018.

“We had utilised substantial time and efforts to ensure that the negotiation of the proposed merger with AFB would conclude favourably for both parties while implementing our strategic business plans to achieve the [key performance indicator],” said Ahmad Zaini.

MBSB posted RM36.09 billion in gross financing/loans and advances and total assets of RM44.95 billion as at September, up 2.27% and 3.89% year to date respectively.

It attributed the upward trend in gross financing/loans and advances to the expansion in corporate and property financing, which has helped to partly offset the contraction in the retail segment.

On prospects, MBSB said it expects its performance for 2017 to be satisfactory. “The group will focus on continued expansion of the corporate business segment as it has shown positive contribution for the nine months period in 2017, in terms of growth in corporate portfolio assets and earnings.”

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on Nov 24, 2017.

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