Maybank profits surge, RI operations contribute 7%

KUALA LUMPUR. Maybank, Malaysia’s largest bank and Southeast Asia’s fourth-largest by assets, reaped 5.74 billion Malaysian ringgit (US$1.84 billion) in net profits throughout 2012, an increase of 17.6 percent from a year earlier, partly on the back of solid growth in the bank’s overseas operations in key countries Indonesia and Singapore.

Maybank president & CEO Dato’ Sri Abdul Wahid Omar told reporters on Thursday that the bank’s “diversified growth portfolio in countries such as Indonesia, opportunities in regional investment banking and Islamic banking niches, enabled it to record double-digit growth despite the slowdown in the global economy.

“I am confident that the key components in our journey of transformation, especially the further enhancement of staff productivity and the restructuring of our regional cost base, will lead to further sustained high performance in the future,” he said in a press briefing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Malaysia’s biggest lender surpassed last year’s return on equity target of 15.6 percent by achieving 16 percent.

The bank, which operates in 20 countries, also booked 7.89 billion ringgit in profits before tax throughout last year’s January-December period or an increase of 14.8 percent from the 6.88 billion ringgit it booked in 2011.

Maybank’s 2012 financial report shows that the group’s key financials recorded double-digit growth for the year. Its total operating income rose 12 percent amid the slowing global economy. The firm also saw a 14 percent increase in net fee-based income and a 10.8 percent increase in net fund-based income.

Dato’ Wahid, who was accompanied by Maybank’s chairman, Tan Sri Megat, said the bank’s operations in Indonesia, the Southeast Asia’s largest economy, had reached “significant achievements” in 2012.

Maybank’s unit in Indonesia — the publicly listed Bank International Indonesia (BII), contributed 7 percent to the group’s total profits before tax in 2012, higher than the 5.2 percent it contributed a year earlier. The Malaysian banks holds a 97.5 percent stake in BII.

The firm’s Singapore operations, while it remained the second-largest contributor to the total profit before tax in 2012, experienced a decrease from the 15.1 percent it contributed in 2011 to only 14.4 percent last year.

Indonesia’s operations is expected to become the major overseas contributor to Maybank surpassing Singapore.

“We expect our operations in Indonesia to contribute double-digits to the group’s total profit in 2015,” BII president director Dato’ Khairussaleh Ramli said in the same event.

Earlier this week, BII announced that it had reaped $124.2 million in net profits throughout 2012, up 81 percent from a year earlier.

Maybank’s BII also experienced a 17.8 percent increase in net income and a 3.4 percent decrease in provision expenses in 2012, with a loan to deposit ratio at a “healthy” 87.3 percent while its net interest margin widened from 5.22 to 5.73 percent, according to the firm’s financial reports.

For 2013, Maybank’s Dato’ Wahid said the group was optimistic that it would continue to grow
amid projected economic growth in the ASEAN countries that had become its key players, such as Malaysia with an estimated growth of 5.7 percent and Indonesia with 6.7 percent.

Overall, the executive said he expected the group’s credit growth this year to reach 12 percent.

“Our entity’s credit growth in Indonesia is projected to reach 22 percent, while in Malaysia, we expect to see 12 percent credit growth and in Singapore 11 percent,” he said. (Amahl S. Azwar/ The Jakarta Post)