KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): RHB Bank Bhd's net profit for the fourth quarter ended Dec 31, 2019 rose 9.8% to RM621 million from RM565.43 million a year earlier, due to higher non-fund based income and net fund based income, and lower expected credit losses.

In a bourse filing today, RHB said revenue for the quarter increased to RM3.42 billion from RM3.31 billion previously.

Earnings per share rose to 15.49 sen from 14.10 sen.

RHB proposed a final dividend of 18.5 sen per share, amounting to RM741.85 million.

For the financial year ended Dec 31, RHB’s net profit rose 7.4% to RM2.48 billion from RM2.31 billion in the year-ago period, on the back of higher revenue of RM13.53 billion versus RM12.69 billion.

In a separate statement, RHB group managing director Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli said the group had delivered a strong performance in 2019 despite a challenging economic environment.

“Amidst market uncertainties, we are confident that our well-structured strategy, robust capital and liquidity levels as well as prudence in managing cost and asset quality will enable us to grow the business sustainably.

“We expect 2020 business outlook to remain challenging. With the recent OPR cut and potentially further cuts, our net interest income would be adversely impacted. We are strengthening our efforts to mitigate any possible adverse effects to our asset quality,” he said.

At the midday break today, RHB shares were 0.36% or 2 sen lower at RM5.56, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM22.29 billion.