CIMB Thai’s Q1 profit up 40.8%

PETALING JAYA: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd's unit, CIMB Thai Bank PCL's net profit rose 40.8% to 440.7 million bhat (RM44.2 million) in the first quarter ended Mar 31, 2014.
In a statement to Bursa Malaysia, the growth was mainly attributed to a growth in other income, net interest income and net fee and service income of 106.0%, 27.1%, and 23.1% respectively.
As at Mar 31 2014, CIMB Thai's total gross loans stood at 171.9 billion bhat (RM17.24 billion), a mere 0.4% increase from Dec 31, 2013.
The gross non-performing loans (NPL), on the other hand, stood at 5.5 billion bhat (RM551.7 million), with NPL ratio of 3.1%, an increase from 2.5% as at Dec 31,2013, due to the economic slowdown and increase in corporate and certain retail segments.
"The increase in corporate NPLs is from certain sizable accounts and we believe that it does not reflect any systemic pattern at this time," it said.
CIMB Thai said it continues to exercise high credit risk underwriting standards and risk management policies.
"We also focus on improving productivity in monitoring, collection and managing all accounts closely and effectively," it added.