KUALA LUMPUR: BIMB Holdings Bhd’s (BIMB) net profit surged 66% to RM125.3 million in the third quarter of financial year 2014 ending December (3QFY14), from RM75.5 million a year ago, following the acquisition of a 49% stake in Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd in December last year.

Quarterly revenue rose 7% to RM744.49 million from RM696.03 million a year earlier. The group has declared an interim single-tier dividend of 14.7 sen per share, amounting to RM219.55 million for FY14.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the Islamic financial group said for the nine-month period (9MFY14), net profit soared 72.7% to RM378.42 million from RM219.18 million a year ago, while revenue rose 6% to RM2.21 billion from RM2.08 billion previously.

BIMB recorded a marginally lower consolidated profit before zakat and taxation (PBZT) for 9MFY14 of RM595.5 million, down 0.5% from 9MFY13, which it attributed mainly to the financing cost of sukuk.

The sukuk was raised to partly fund the acquisition of the 49% stake in Bank Islam.

According to BIMB, Bank Islam group’s 9MFY14 PBZT grew 6.4% to RM506.3 million, which was mainly attributed to growth in business activities.

Its net financing assets grew RM4.8 billion or 21.4% to reach RM27.4 billion as at end-September this year. Correspondingly, fund-based income from financing also increased by RM159.8 million or 16%, it said.

Non-fund-based income rose 8.7% or RM17.5 million, mainly from foreign exchange transactions and net gain from the sale of financial assets available for sale.

BIMB said Bank Islam’s customer deposits rose 7.6% or RM2.7 billion to RM38.1 billion. The bank’s gross impaired financing ratio remained at 1.18%, compared with that as at end-December last year.

On Takaful Malaysia group, BIMB said its 9MFY14 PBZT increased 13.5% to RM142.5 million from RM125.6 million in 9MFY13 due to lower management expenses, commissions and expense reserves.

Operating revenue for the period decreased to RM1.25 billion from RM1.33 billion, mainly due to lower sales generated by the family takaful business.

“Going forward, the economic outlook is somewhat mixed,” said BIMB, as it noted the International Monetary Fund’s downgraded forecast for the global economy.

BIMB said Bank Islam will continue to optimise returns by balancing its product mix, optimising its assets and liabilities mix, maintaining business growth and increasing fee-based income.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on November 26, 2014.