KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 22): Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd registered a net profit of RM53.36 million or 34.54 sen per share for the third quarter ended Nov 30, 2015 (3QFY16), as revenue came in at RM245.78 million.

There were no comparative figures available, as the non-bank financial institution had changed its financial year-end to Feb 28 from Feb 20 previously.

For the cumulative nine months (9MFY16), Aeon Credit's net profit came in at RM160.09 million or 103.94 sen per share, while revenue stood at RM706.94 million, its filing with Bursa Malaysia today showed.

Aeon Credit said its non-performing loans (NPL) ratio was 2.68% as at Nov 30, compared with 3.07% as at Nov 20, 2014.

Total transaction and financing volume in 3QFY16 and 9MFY16 had risen by 8.71% to RM921.621 million and by 3.9% to RM2.658 billion respectively, compared with the previous year's corresponding quarter and nine-month period ended Nov 20, 2014.

Aeon Credit recorded other operating income of RM21.628 million for 3QFY16, mainly from bad debts recovered, commission income from the sale of insurance products, and AEON Big loyalty programme's processing fee.

Ratio of total operating expenses against revenue for the quarter under review stood at 63.3% from the 60.4% seen in the quarter ended Nov 20 previously, mainly due to higher allowance for impairment losses on financing receivables.

"Average funding cost for the current quarter was marginally higher compared to the quarter ended Nov 20, 2014 due to higher funding cost for new long-term funding," it added.

Going forward, Aeon Credit expects to maintain its performance for the financial year ending Feb 29, 2016 (FY16), based on the implementation of its business plan.

Shares in Aeon Credit closed two sen or 0.17% lower at RM11.78 today, bringing it a market capitalisation of RM1.69 billion.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)