CIMB Niaga posts net profits of US$181m

by **hlk** Tue 09 Aug 2011, 17:27

JAKARTA: PT Bank CIMB Niaga, the 97.9% unit of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, recorded a net profit of 1.55 trillion rupiah (US$181 million or RM545 million) for its 1HFY11 ended June 30, marking a 37% increase from the corresponding period last year where it raked in net profits of 1.13 trillion rupiah.

Earnings per share (EPS) for the six-month period stood at 61.94 rupiah, in contrast to 47.17 rupiah for 1HFY10.

CIMB Niaga is Indonesia’s fifth largest bank by asset size.

As at end June, the Indonesian lender had total assets of 152.71 trillion rupiah, up 21% from the corresponding period in 2010, where total assets amounted to 126.33 trillion rupiah.

CIMB Niaga president director Arwin Rasyid said the relative stability of the Indonesian economy helped boost the bank’s lending growth. For the six months under review, loans grew by 27% to 116.61 trillion rupiah from 91.76 trillion rupiah a year earlier. Loan growth was driven largely by the corporate and commercial sectors.

CIMB Niaga increased its number of outlets to 845 as at end June from 668 in mid-2010. CIMB Niaga also plans to continue improving its Islamic lending and micro financing, which have shown promising growth opportunities. The banking group grew its micro financing network, Mikro Laju, from 35 outlets a year ago to 186 currently, which translated into 534% in loan growth.

For 1HFY11, the banking group’s loan to deposit ratio increased by 793 basis points to 93.42%. The quality of CIMB Niaga’s assets were reflected in a non-performing loans ratio of 2.69%.

The lender’s financial ratios showed marked improvement as well. During 1HFY11, return on assets stood at 2.86% compared with 2.66% for 1HFY10 while the company’s return on equity rose to 19.69% from 19.1% a year ago.

In line with the better results, CIMB Niaga advanced the most on four months, gaining 3.3% to close at 1,570 rupiah yesterday.

In a separate note, company director Wan Razly Abdullah said in order to support lending growth, the lender may sell one trillion rupiah worth of subordinated bonds next year.