This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 26, 2017

KUALA LUMPUR: AEON Credit Service (M) Bhd saw its net profit for the fourth quarter ended Feb 28, 2017 (4QFY17) rise 17% to RM80.05 million from RM68.13 million a year ago, as revenue climbed 13% to RM290.84 million from RM258.29 million.

For FY17, net profit grew 16% to RM265.03 million from RM228.22 million a year ago, while revenue gained 14% to RM1.1 billion from RM965.23 million.

AEON Credit declared a final single-tier dividend of 32.5 sen per share for the year, bringing its total FY17 payout to 63 sen versus 59.45 sen in FY16.

In total, AEON Credit said, it will fork out RM46.8 million to pay the dividend, which is payable on July 19, according to its bourse filing yesterday.

AEON Credit said it recorded higher total transaction and financing volumes, which grew 4% in 4QFY17 and 11% for the full year to RM991.03 million and RM4.015 billion respectively.

Other operating income jumped 59% to RM39.23 million in 4QFY17, and rose 33.6% to RM120.24 million for FY17.

As for financing receivables, AEON Credit said it stood at RM6.44 billion as at Feb 28, 2017, up 19% from RM5.41 billion recorded as at end-February 2016.

“[The] non-performing loan ratio was 2.28% as at Feb 28, 2017, compared with 2.47% as at Feb 29, 2016,” the company said in the filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

“Average funding cost for FY17 was marginally higher compared with the previous financial year due to higher funding cost for new long-term funding,” it added.