KUALA LUMPUR (March 2): Malaysia Building Society Bhd's (MBSB) net profit surged 202.38% to RM356.69 million in the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 (4QFY19) from RM117.96 million a year earlier, helped by the financial services provider's financial asset impairment writeback.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, MBSB said net writeback for impairment on loans, financing and advances and other financial assets amounted to RM211.67 million versus an allowance of RM53.3 million a year earlier.

MBSB's writeback for impairment on loans, financing and advances and other financial assets is termed expected credit losses (ECL) in notes accompanying the group's financials. MBSB said revenue rose to RM784.14 million from RM680.37 million.

"The group’s profit before tax (PBT) and profit after tax (PAT) for 4QFY19 increased by more than 100% compared with 4QFY18 and 3QFY19 respectively. The increase in PBT and PAT in the current quarter is due to the ECL writeback in 4QFY19," MBSB said.

For the full year, MBSB said cumulative FY19 net profit increased to RM716.9 million from RM642.4 million a year earlier while revenue rose to RM3.01 billion from RM2.86 billion.

MBSB group president and chief executive officer Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaini Othman said in a press statement attached to the Bursa filing that the group remained resilient against the challenging economic environment.

"We take cognisance of the unfavourable factors currently affecting the economy, especially the Covid-19 and the political landscape. We have taken the necessary steps to manage these risks as well as putting in place the initiatives to accommodate customers who are distressed by the negative impact of Covid-19.

"Our business diversification into other sectors, for example, renewable energy has also shown results as we have granted financing facilities amounting to over half a billion ringgit to certain key players,” Ahmad Zaini said.

At Bursa's 12:30pm break today, MBSB's share price settled down 0.5 sen or 0.65% at 76.5 sen with some two million shares traded. At 76.5 sen, MBSB has a market capitalisation of RM5.13 billion.