CIMB’s Q3 net profit 27% higher

PETALING JAYA: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd’s net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2016 rose 27.3% to RM1.02 billion from RM803.89 million a year ago on higher non-interest income and a RM150 million gain from the sale of its 51% interest in PT CIMB Sun Life.
CIMB’s revenue increased 7.4% to RM4.12 billion from RM3.84 billion in the third quarter last year.
“On consumer banking, we will accelerate our digital proposition across the region and focus on recalibration in Thailand. On commercial banking, we will sustain the momentum in Malaysia and Indonesia, whilst focusing on asset quality in Thailand. We expect better loans growth in corporate banking and, subject to market conditions, steady improvement in the capital markets business.
“As we approach the halfway mark of our T18 Strategy, we will fine-tune our programmes where necessary, to ensure a sustainable growth trajectory across all businesses within the group.
“We are also excited about Vietnam, where we have been granted a full banking licence and will begin operations in December 2016. With a stronger foundation in place, we are now in a better position to advance our Asean franchise,” said CIMB Group chief executive Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz Tengku Abdul Aziz.
For the nine months period, CIMB’s net profit jumped 34% to RM2.71 billion from RM2.02 billion a year ago, while revenue increased 3.5% to RM11.75 billion compared with RM11.35 billion last year.
The group saw a 3.5% expansion in nine-month operating income with well-contained operating expenses, bringing about a 5.8% year-on-year improvement in the net profit of RM2.71 billion compared with the business-as-usual nine-month 2015 net profit of RM2.56 million.
“We saw strong 3Q16 performance in consumer banking for Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand. Across the group, consistent efforts in managing cost resulted in an improvement in our cost-to-income ratio to 53.2% in 3Q16. Our capital position is strengthening and we remain on track to achieve our 11% CET1 (common equity tier 1) target for 2016,” said Tengku Zafrul.
Nine-month 2016 net earnings per share stood at 31.4 sen, while the annualised net return for the period on average equity was 8.5%.