KUALA LUMPUR (Mar 30): Public Bank Bhd founder and chairman Tan Sri Teh Hong Piow says Public Bank is set to maintain its earnings momentum in 2015, he told some 5,600 shareholders in his opening speech at the 49th annual general meeting (AGM) today.

Net profit in 2014 was up 11.2% on-year to RM4.52 billion.

Group chief operating officer Chang Siew Yen said the banking group has no intention to expand into new markets overseas and will focus on organic growth in existing countries and areas it is currently operating in.

Public Bank’s (fundamental: 2.8 ; valuation: 1.2) presence in the region is manifest in 83 branches in Hong Kong, 3 branches in China, 27 branches in Cambodia, 7 in Vietnam, 4 in Laos and 3 branches in Sri Lanka, according to its annual report.

"Locally, the group will focus on home mortgage, its lending activities in the retail sector with loans for the financing of residential properties and passenger vehicles, as well as lending to small and medium enterprise (SME)," said Chang.

Commenting on its interest margin compression, Public Bank managing director and chief executive officer Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek said all banks are facing the same issue, due to more stringent banking requirements.

"We will try to increase productivity and improve efficiency and asset quality to address this," he replied to a question raised by one of the shareholders today.

On the banking group’s succession plan, Tay said it is "something on-going".

"We will continue to look for skill diversity and gender diversity too," he added.

A simple calculation based on the data provided in the annual report 2014, shows the average age of the bank’s directors is 71.37 years.

(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.)