Maybank 3Q12 profit surges 13% to RM1.5b

This propelled nine-month profit to RM4.29b.

In its release announcing 3Q12 results, Maybank reported profit after tax and minority interest (PATAMI) of RM4.29 billion for the nine months ended 30 September 2012, up 18.2% from the RM3.63 billion recorded in the nine months to September 2011. Group profit before tax was up 15.6% to RM5.95 billion.

"The Group saw steady growth across almost all business sectors despite the softening global economy, reflecting efforts to grow profitably and responsibly while ensuring sound asset quality," said Maybank.

Net revenue rose 14.8% to RM12.37 billion on the back of a 14.9% growth in fund-based income and 14.8% in feebased income.

Maybank said performance was boosted by strong growth in revenue from International Banking, particularly Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII), as well as Islamic Banking, Investment Banking and Corporate Banking.

Group loans maintained double-digit growth of 10.4%, led by Community Financial Services, Corporate Banking, Investment Banking and BII. Although this was behind the original full year target of 16.2%, it was in line with the general slowing down recorded by the industry. For the Malaysian operations, loans growth was 12.4% on an annualised basis and higher than industry growth of 11.2%. Total Loans & Debt Securities grew at 9.9%.

The main drivers for the steady performance in the nine months included:

• A 14.8% rise in non-interest income (including fee income from Islamic operations and net income from insurance & takaful business) to RM4.78 billion, led by a 63% rise in investment and trading income and a 14.5% increase in commissions, service charges & fees. Fee income from Islamic operations on its own grew 72%, mainly owing to the increase in primary subscriber fees from major deals undertaken by the Investment Banking business.
• Net fund based income which grew 14.9% to RM7.59 billion, with net interest margin stable at 2.41% at the end of September 2012 compared with the 2.40% registered in the first six months to June 2012.
• Healthy growth in Group deposits which stood at RM330.5 billion, up 12.7% from a year earlier, with low-cost deposits making up a significant 34.6% of total deposits. Double digit year-onyear growth was recorded across the three home markets of Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia
• Continued robust growth of 23.4% in Global Wholesale Banking’s profit before tax (PBT) to RM2.75 billion. This was led by more than a doubling in PBT for Investment Banking (to RM318 million), 25.5% rise in Corporate Banking (to RM1.30 billion) and 5.4% growth in Global Markets (to RM1.13 billion).
• A 52.7% rise in PBT for International Banking to RM1.72 billion with the key home markets of Singapore registering PBT of S$307 million (+2.8%) and Indonesia’s Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) recording PBT of Rp 1.3 trillion (+63%).
• Stronger results from the Group’s Islamic banking which saw profit before tax and zakat rise by 43.8% to RM1.10 billion. 

“Our approach in growing responsibly and profitably in addition to adopting loan pricing discipline has helped us sustain profit growth over the nine months. These efforts, coupled with our strategic cost management initiatives, development of new income streams as well as expansion of regional
platforms are key to helping us build efficiency and drive our region-wide growth further," said Maybank President & CEO, Dato’ Sri Abdul Wahid Omar.

"While we cannot fully avoid the headwinds in the current global economic environment resulting in lower external demand, we remain reassured that our three home markets of Malaysia, Singapore & Indonesia will see resilient domestic growth. With our focus on the region, particularly ASEAN, we expect to register reasonable business growth for the full financial year," he added.