Maybank optimistic of another record year

KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) expects to achieve another record year this financial year ending Dec 31, 2018 (FY18) after hitting an all-time high of RM7.52 billion in net profit last year.
“From an absolute number, definitely. We hope to see from an absolute number or nominal number, we’ll see another record year and therefore it will be translated to distribution to all stakeholders,” group president and CEO Datuk Abdul Farid Alias told reporters after its AGM and EGM yesterday.
Chairman Datuk Mohaiyani Shamsudin said the group achieved a record year last year on four fronts namely net income, pre-provisioning operating profit (PPOP), pre-tax profit and net profit.
“Last year was quite a difficult year and we managed to do very well. We hope we can do as well this year, if not better,” she said. Maybank’s net income grew 4.9% year-on-year to RM23.27 billion while PPOP grew 1.9% year-on-year to RM11.91 billion last year.
Pre-tax profit grew 14.2% year-on-year to RM10.10 billion and net profit grew 11.5% year-on-year to RM7.52 billion.
Mohaiyani said for FY18, it will continue leveraging growth opportunities across the region, as well as focus on managing liquidity, costs and risks effectively to ensure sustainable growth.
“We will be disciplined in managing our net interest margins especially in a rising interest rate environment, and will continue to adopt disciplined pricing of loans under the new MFRS9 environment,” said Farid.
Maybank’s net interest margin rose 9bps to 2.36% in FY17 from 2.27% in FY16 while net fund based income rose 10.3% to RM16.62 billion in FY17 from RM15.07 billion in FY16.
He said the group will maintain stable liquidity risk indicators ahead of the adoption of the Net Stable Funding Ratio in 2019, and will manage costs growth effectively with cost-to-income ratio of around 48% for FY18.
Farid said the group aims to achieve a return on equity of around 11% for FY18, compared with 10.9% in FY17.
At the AGM yesterday, shareholders approved a final single-tier dividend of 32 sen per share, which will once again be under the dividend reinvestment plan.
Shareholders also approved Permodalan Nasional Bhd’s proposed subscription of 20% of the enlarged number of shares in Maybank Asset Management Group Bhd, for RM50 million cash, at the EGM held following the AGM.
Maybank’s share price fell 0.57% or 6 sen to close at RM10.54 yesterday with 17.21 million shares done.