CIMB Thai’s earnings drop 34% in 2014

PETALING JAYA: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd's CIMB Thai reported a drop of 33.64% in net profit to THB988.80 million (RM109.5 million) for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2014 against THB1.49 billion a year ago, due to the presence of extraordinary items in 2013.
In a filing with the stock exchange, CIMB said the extraordinary items included shared gains from Thai Asset Management Corp, gain from payback from a liquidated subsidiary, gain on redemption of Vayupak Fund 1, dividend income from Vayupak Fund 1 and special provisions set aside as counter-cyclical buffer.
Excluding the extraordinary items, CIMB Thai's net profit could have just fallen 9.5% from a normalised tax expense in 2014 following the utilisation of tax losses in 2013.
As at Dec 31, 2014, CIMB Thai's total gross loans stood at THB190.8 billion, representing an increase of 10.9% against the year before.
Meanwhile, its gross non-performing loans (NPL) stood at THB6.4 billion, with gross NPL ratio of 3.3% from 2.5% a year ago.
This was mainly due to economic disruptions which affected the borrowers' repayment ability and increase in certain sizable corporate accounts and retail segments.