BIMB's 3Q profit slips 4.36%, declares 12.2 sen dividend

by **Cals** Tue 01 Dec 2015, 00:38

BIMB's 3Q profit slips 4.36%, declares 12.2 sen dividend
By [size=13]Sangeetha Amarthalingam / theedgemarkets.com | November 30, 2015 : 7:07 PM MYT [/size]

KUALA LUMPUR (Nov 30): BIMB Holdings Bhd ([You must be registered and logged in to see this image.] Valuation: 2.20, Fundamental: 2.70) saw its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2015 (3QFY15) fall 4.36% to RM119.8 million or 7.77 sen per share from RM125.3 million or 8.39 per share last year.
Revenue was at RM802.56 million, up by 7.8% from RM744.49 million in 3QFY14.
In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, BIMB saw its cumulative nine-month period's (9MFY15) net profit grew 1.84% to RM385.4 million while revenue rose to RM2.4 billion, an increase of 9.98% from the corresponding period last year.
It declared an interim single-tier dividend of 12.2 sen, amounting to RM188.15 million based on the outstanding issued paid-up share capital as at Sept 30, 2015.
The entitlement date will be determined as at book closing date on Dec 31, 2015, tentatively, and the payment date is in the end of January 2016, subject to approval by relevant authorities.
BIMB said the Bank Islam group reported a profit before zakat and taxation (PBZT) of RM529.6 million for 9MFY15, which represents a 4.6% increase, compared to the previous corresponding period.
"The improved performance was mainly attributed to growth in business activities. Year-on-year net financing assets grew by RM4.8 billion or 17.7% to reach RM32.2 billion as at end September 2015.
"Correspondingly, fund based income from financing also increased by RM217.1 million or 18.7%.
"Non-fund based income reported a decrease of 5.0% or RM11.0 million mainly from lower foreign exchange profit and lower net gain from sale of financial assets available-for-sale," it said.
Customer deposits stood at RM40 billion, rising 5.3%, and current and savings accounts (CASA) ratio as at end of September was 35.1% higher than the Islamic Banking industry CASA ratio of 25.5% as at end of August, 2015.
"As at end September 2015, the bank's gross impaired financing ratio remained at 1.14%, similar to the position as at December 2014. The net impaired financing ratio (less IA and CA) was a negative 0.83% as at end September 2015, whilst the net impaired financing ratio (less IA only) was 0.72%.
"The banking system's gross impaired ratio was 1.60% and the net impaired ratios were 0.04% (less IA and CA) and 1.23% (less IA only) as at end August 2015," it said.
For takaful (Islamic insurance) in 9MFY15, BIMB said the Takaful Malaysia Group recorded PBZT of RM156.4 million, an increase by 9.8% as compared to RM142.5 million in the same period last year due to higher wakalah (agency) fee income.
BIMB maintains its loan growth forecast to be between 7% and 8% for this year with a stable outlook as the industry's credit fundamentals remain strong and well poised to withstand the uncertain environment.
It expects Islamic banking financial growth to record double-digit growth but lower than the rate it previously achieved.
"Factors that the Bank view will set the pace for the banking sector in the near term are stiff competition for deposits, further margin compression and regulatory compliance.
"Moving forward, the pursuit of growth and profitability against the backdrop of uncertain economic cycle and heightened regulatory requirements have led the Bank to focus on liability management, safeguarding asset quality and capital preservation," it said.
BIMB closed six sen or 1.52% lower at RM3.90 for a market capitalisation of RM6.1 billion.
(Note: The Edge Research’s fundamental score reflects a company’s profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)