KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 20): Public Bank Bhd net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2016 rose 3.1% year-on-year to RM1.24 billion from RM1.20 billion a year earlier, driven mainly by higher net interest income and income from Islamic banking business.

Its revenue for the quarter increased to RM5.03 billion from RM4.91 billion a year earlier, while earnings per share was 32.06 sen compared to 31.11 sen previously.

For the nine months ended Sept 30, Public Bank’s net profit rose to RM3.72 billion from RM3.57 billion a year earlier.

In a statement today, Public Bank founder and chairman Tan Sri Dr. Teh Hong Piow said the Group had demonstrated the ability to generate stable profitability when the operating environment continued to present challenges to the business.

“This was attributed to the Group’s solid strategy in strengthening its niches in the retail banking business.”

He said that during the first nine months of 2016, the group’s total operating revenue grew by 5.4%, mainly attributed to its continued healthy loan and deposit growth at annualised rates of 7.2% and 7.4% respectively.

He said against the challenging operating environment, the bank  also showed resilience through its efficient cost-to-income ratio of 32.5%, and low gross impaired loan ratio of 0.5%.

Teh also said that growing fee-based revenue has remained the Public Bank Group’s key strategic focus.

“Our network advantage has put the Group in a favourable position to grow fee-based revenue.

“For the first nine months of 2016, the Group’s transactional banking and unit trust management business remained positive, contributing two-thirds of the Group’s total non-interest income,” he said.

On asset quality, he said it was nonetheless a concern to banks in times of challenges and uncertainties.

“However, the Public Bank Group is able to preserve its strong asset quality through its prudent lending policies, strong risk management practices and extensive recovery efforts,” he said.

On Public Bank’s prospects, he said the bank stable performance for the first nine months of 2016 had reaffirmed the proven business strategies of the Group in withstanding challenges in the operating environment.

“The Group sees prudent risk management, sound corporate governance and sustaining superior asset quality continue to be the keys to maintaining trust and confidence among stakeholders and in ensuring long term sustainability of the Group’s profitability,” he said.

At the midday break, Public Bank rose 0.20% or 4 sen to RM19.84 with 1.27 million shares traded.