Hot Stock CIMB rises 3% on valuable brand award, stellar full year profit

by **Cals** Fri 28 Feb 2014, 01:32

Hot Stock CIMB rises 3% on valuable brand award, stellar full year profit

Business & Markets 2014

Written by Jeffrey Tan of theedgemalaysia.com

Thursday, 27 February 2014 12:20

KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): CIMB Group Holdings Bhd rose as much as 3% after it won awards for being among the most valuable banking brands globally.

Earlier this week, it announced that it had posted a record high full-year net profit of RM4.54 billion in 2013.

At 11.53 am today, CIMB rose 18 sen or 2.6% to RM7.08. The fourth top gainer saw some 2.2 million shares exchanged hands. It had earlier hit a high of RM7.11.

“CIMB rose among the top gainers today due to the awards bagged by the banking and financial group, as well as its record FY13 net profit,” a dealer told theedgemalaysia.com over the telephone.

The dealer said CIMB’s aborted plan to list its Thai counterpart, CIMB Thai Bank is not a dampener to the group.

“On the contrary, it is a good move,” the dealer added.

The Edge Financial Daily today reported CIMB was ranked No 1 in Malaysia and fourth in Asean in Brand Finance’s annual ranking of the 500 most valuable banking brands globally.

CIMB also boasted an improved brand value of US$2.041 billion (RM6.694 billion).

Earlier this week, CIMB announced it had achieved a record profit year for the group, despite higher provision due to prudent provision policy. The group achieved a record high net profit of RM4.54 billion for FY13, up 4.5% from RM4.34 billion in FY12.

However, CIMB achieved a marginally lower net profit of RM1.04 billion for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2013 against RM1.08 billion previously.

In a note, MIDF Research said it remained ‘neutral’ on the stock with an unchanged target price of RM8.10, given the challenging environment for its international markets.

CIMB said the group had decided to abandon the proposed listing on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in light of the market and political conditions in Thailand.