KUALA LUMPUR (June 25): Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd registered a net profit of RM58.24 million or 37.96 sen per share for the first quarter ended May 31, 2015 (1QFY16).

Revenue for the quarter came in at RM232.44 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.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia today, Aeon Credit said its non-performing loans (NPL) ratio was 2.74% as at May 31, 2015, compared with 2.18% as at May 20, 2014.

"Total transaction and financing volume in 1QFY16 was 844.273 million, (while) the financing receivables as at May 31, 2015 was RM4.671 billion, a 21.61% increase from RM3.841 billion as at May 20, 2014," it said.

Aeon Credit recorded other operating income of RM23.803 million for 1QFY16, mainly comprising bad debts recovered, commission income from sale of insurance products and AEON Big loyalty programme processing fee.

Ratio of total operating expenses against revenue, however, rose to 61.2%, from 54.6% previously, mainly due to higher allowance for impairment losses on financing receivables.

Going forward, Aeon Credit expects to maintain its performance for the financial year ending Feb 29, 2016 (FY16) based on implementation of its business plan, with stronger performance in the second half of the financial year based on anticipated increase in consumer spending.

Shares in Aeon Credit (fundamental: 1.1; valuation: 2.1) closed unchanged at RM14.18 today, bringing it's market capitalisation to RM2.04 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.)