PETALING JAYA: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd’s 94.83%-owned CIMB Thai Bank PCL recorded a consolidated net profit of 728.1 million baht (RM100.4 million) for the nine-month period ended Sept 30, 2019 (9M2019), an increase of 35.5% year-on-year (yoy), mainly attributed to a 2.3% growth in operating income and a 32.7% decline in provisions.
CIMB Thai Bank’s newly appointed president and CEO Adisorn Sermchaiwong said on a yoy basis, operating income rose 2.3% to 10.4 billion baht from a 3.1% increase in net interest income, on the back of loan expansion and higher interest income on investments and a 6.8% increase in net fee and service income arising from higher fees from insurance and underwriting.
Other operating income decreased 13.4% mainly attributed to losses on financial instruments designated at fair value through profit or loss offset by gains from tradings and foreign exchange transactions.
Net interest margin over earning assets stood at 3.32% in 9M2019 against 3.77% in 9M2018, owing to higher cost of funds.
As at Sept 30, 2019, total gross loans (inclusive of loans guaranteed by other banks and loans to financial institutions) stood at 240.2 billion baht, an increase of 5.5% from Dec 31, 2018.
Deposits (inclusive of bill of exchanges, debentures and selected structured deposit products) stood at 238.2 billion baht, a slight increase of 1.7% from 234.3 billion baht as at end of December 2018. The modified loan-to-deposit ratio rose to 100.9% compared to 97.2% as at Dec 31, 2018.
The gross non-performing loans (NPL) stood at 11.1 billion baht, with an equivalent gross NPL ratio of 4.6% from 4.3% as at Dec 31, 2018, arising from certain corporate accounts and retail segments.
Loan loss coverage ratio stood at 98.0% as at Sept 30, 2019 compared with 107.0% as at the end of December 2018. As at Sept 30, 2019, total provisions stood at 10.9 billion baht, translating to a 5.1 billion baht excess over the Bank of Thailand’s reserve requirements.
