Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 17): AMMB Holdings Bhd's (AmBank) net profit for the first quarter ended June 30, 2022 (1QFY23) rose 8.42% to RM419.19 million, from RM386.6 million a year ago, on the back of lower impairment charges.

In a bourse filing, the banking group said revenue for the quarter, however, dipped to RM1.16 billion, from RM1.24 billion previously, due to lower trading and investment income.

Earnings per share stood at 12.66 sen, versus 11.86 sen a year ago.

AMMB did not declare any dividend for the quarter.

In a separate statement, group chief executive officer Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir said that amid a challenging macro and geopolitical environment, the group commenced the new financial year with a firm profit after tax and minority interest (Patmi) of RM419.2 million, while delivering an annualised return on equity (ROE) of 10%.

“I am particularly pleased with our performance in wholesale banking, retail banking, business banking and Islamic banking, which reflected our continued strong fundamentals amid volatility,” he said.

AMMB said net interest income grew by 5.5% year-on-year (y-o-y), while the net interest margin was higher at 2.12% (1QFY22: 2.08%).

However, it said volatile market conditions led to lower trading and investment income from the group's treasury and markets and insurance businesses, as well as lower fee income from investment banking and wealth management.

Consequently, it said non-interest income reduced by 28.9% y-o-y.

The bank said overall expenses increased by 9.9% y-o-y to RM543.7 million.

Cost-to-income (CTI) was higher at 46.8%, compared with 40% in the previous year.

After adjusting for the reversal of bonus accruals in 1QFY22, normalised expenses grew 2.3%, while normalised CTI stood at 42.9%.

Profit before provision stood at RM617.9 million.

“With lower impairment charges, Patmi increased by 8.4% y-o-y to RM419.2 million, while the annualised ROE was 10% for 1QFY23.

“The group recorded lower impairments of RM63.9 million in 1QFY23, compared with RM203.2 million in the previous year,” it said.

Sulaiman said there were significant signs of recovery in Malaysia’s economic activities across various sectors, supported by firm domestic demand and the recovery charted in the job market, which was encouraging.

“Consumer and investor sentiments also continued to improve.

“While the potential challenges surrounding geopolitical tension, [fears of a] global recession, inflation, protracted disruptions to supply chains as well as financial market volatilities remain a concern, AmBank Group is in a strong position to weather these uncertain times, and capitalise on the opportunities that lie ahead, particularly given our solid liquidity, credit quality and reserve levels,” he said.

At the midday break on Wednesday (Aug 17), AMMB had shed 0.75% or three sen to RM3.99, with 960,500 shares traded.

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