KUALA LUMPUR: AMMB Holdings Bhd (AmBank) registered a net profit of RM1.74 billion for its financial year ended March 31, 2023. This represented a 15.5% growth year-on-year. (yoy).
The total income of the banking group grew by 1.6% to RM4.73 billion. This was mainly supported by 8.1% increase in net Interest Income on the back of stronger loan growth of 8.5%. However, this was partially offset by a 13.9% decrease in non interest Income mainly from the disposal of AmGeneral insurance Bhd.
Meanwhile, expenses remained flat y-o-y at RM2.1 billion with cost-to-income at 44.3% (FY22: 44.9%).
For FY23, gross impaired loans increased marginally to 1.46% with a loan loss coverage including regulatory reserves at 127.7% (FY22: 139.2%).
In a statement, the banking group said its return on equity improved to 10% compared with 9.3% in FY22.
Gross loans and financing grew from RM120 billion in FY22 to RM130.2 billion in FY23 which represented a jump of 8.5%.
The group’s liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) was at 149.2% for FY23 compared with 158.5% in FY22.
AmBank declared a final dividend of 12.3 sen per share bringing the total dividend for the year to 18.3 sen representing a dividend payout ratio of 35%.
AmBank’s CEO, Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir, said Malaysia’s economy was on a strong rebound and the banking sector was well positioned to leverage on this.
“With a healthy GDP growth of 8.7% in 2022, it is clear that Malaysia’s economy is on a strong rebound. The banking sector is perfectly positioned to leverage the advantage of this strengthening economy,” he said in conjunction with the results announcement.
When asked about the exchange rate and the ringgit’s recent depreciation, Sulaiman said, AmBank foresees the ringgit to trade around RM4.20 to RM4.30 against the US dollar by the end of 2023, based on the country’s strong fundamentals.
