Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) (1155) posted a 35 per cent jump in its second-quarter net profit, boosted by a wider interest margin and a higher fee-based income.
The top lender also declared a net interim dividend of 8.25 sen per share.
Net earnings for the three months ended December 31 2009 came in at RM993.5 million, compared with RM734.6 million in the year before.
"Overall, the full-year performance for fiscal 2010 will be significantly higher than 2009," president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said in a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. He said its return-on-equity will also be higher than the targeted 11 per cent this year, without being specific.
The bank's second-quarter profit alone is already higher than what it made in the previous year. The lender earned RM691.9 million in the financial year to June 2009, its lowest annual profit in a decade after writing down the value of its overseas banks.
For the six-month period, net profit surged 44 per cent to RM1.88 billion. This was helped by 18 per cent higher net interest income as loans grew 9.9 per cent during the period, while net interest margin widened to 2.77 per cent, from 2.7 per cent in the previous year.
The better lending margin was due to lower funding cost and cheaper customer deposits as a result of the low interest rate environment. The revival of capital market activities last year also contributed to Maybank's 78 per cent jump in fee-based income in the first six months.
Maybank is earning more from loans this year mainly because it has taken in the full six-month contribution from its 97.5 per cent-owned Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII). In the comparative period last year, BII's results were only included for the three months from October to December.
Banks in Indonesia generally enjoy faster loan growth and fatter margin compares to Malaysia as the competition is less intense in that market.
The higher earnings worked to cushion the 22 per cent rise in overhead costs for Maybank in the first half, also contributed mainly by BII.
Source: btimes
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