PETALING JAYA: BIMB Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the second quarter ended June 30, 2019 jumped 30.2% to RM195.16 million from RM149.91 million a year ago, thanks to higher profit from its Islamic banking and takaful businesses.
Its revenue rose 16.5% to RM1.16 billion versus RM992.17 million last year.
For the six-month period, BIMB’s net profit grew 23.5% to RM397.68 million compared with RM322.05 million in the corresponding period in 2018, while revenue went up 17.5% to RM2.34 billion from RM1.99 billion.
The group’s performance is mainly dependent on its two main operating subsidiaries, namely, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd and Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Keluarga Bhd.
Bank Islam reported a higher pretax profit of RM437.4 million for the six-month period, an increase of 9.2% over the same period in 2018, mainly due to growth in business activities. Net fund-based income from financing increased 4.8% on the back of a 7.3% growth in net financing assets to RM46.4 billion as at end-June 2019.
Its gross impaired financing ratio came in at 1.2%, lower than the 1.5% of the banking system as at end-May 2019. Financing loss coverage ratio of 136.4% was also much higher than the industry average of 91.7%.
On the funding side, the bank’s customer deposits and investment accounts stood at RM54.7 billion, representing an increase of 10%.
Bank Islam’s capital position continued to be healthy, with total capital ratio at 18.4%, compared to the industry ratio of 17.5% as at end-May 2019.
“The bank is of the view that the profitability outlook for the rest of the year will remain stable despite the challenging economic environment,” BIMB said.
Meanwhile, Syarikat Takaful (Malaysia) Keluarga Bhd Group recorded a 43.7% higher pretax profit of RM210.4 million, compared to RM146.4 million in the same period in 2018, due mainly to stronger growth in the family takaful business.
General takaful’s gross earned contributions rose to RM370.4 million, a rise of 8.1% compared to the same period last year. The growth came mainly from fire class.
“Despite business sentiments remaining cautious in 2019, the takaful industry is expected to outperform the conventional insurers in view of the strong demand in the takaful products,” BIMB said.
At the midday break, BIMB’s share price was unchanged at RM4.05 with 256,900 shares changing hands.
