Bank Muamalat Q1 earnings up 41.6% to RM45.2m from RM32m year ago (1619)

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd (BMMB)posted a 41.6% higher net profit of RM45.2mil for its first quarter ended June 30, 2012 compared to RM32.0mil a year ago.
On
an annualised basis, this translates into a return on equity (ROE) of
12.7%, doubling the 6.1% ROE registered for the previous financial year
ended March, 31 2012.
Underpinning this quarter's encouraging
performance was the 14.5% higher revenue of RM255.6mil compared to
RM223.3mil a year ago.
Financing income rose 18.1% to RM148.3mil, due to increased financing growth.
Fee
and other income delivered a significant 55.8% year-on-year improvement
with major increases registered in wealth management, trade and
financing related activities, besides some capital gains from sale of
securities registered during the quarter.
Financing provisions
were reduced to only RM300,000 from RM7.9mil previously, reflecting the
continued improvements in the bank's credit portfolio, collection and
recovery efforts.
The quarter also recorded gross financing
expansion of 29.7% to RM9.9bil from a year ago, characterised by 27.5%
and 20.4% year-on-year growth in consumer and wholesale portfolios,
respectively.
BMMB's CEO Datuk Mohd Redza Shah Abdul Wahid
said: "The growth is encouraging despite being in a competitive market
and we are on track to surpass the RM10bil financing mark in the next
quarter".
The bank's asset quality also continued to further
improve with its gross impaired financing ratio reducing further to
4.3% as at end of June 2012 from 4.9% in the preceding corresponding
period. - Bernama