KUALA LUMPUR (July 22): Shares of Alliance Financial Group Bhd (AFG) were down 1 sen or 0.23% this morning, following reports the group is targeting an 8% to 9% loan growth for the current financial year ending March 31, 2016 (FY16).

As at 10:52am, AFG (fundamental: 1.5; valuation: 2.25) was trading at RM4.29, after reaching an earlier high of RM4.35, with 86,200 shares traded.

Its current price gives it a market capitalisation of RM6.66 billion.

The Edge Financial Daily reported today that for FY15, AFG posted a loan growth of 14.9% to RM36.6 billion, driven by expansion in the consumer and business banking loan portfolio.

While declining to provide specific guidance, its chief executive officer Joel Kornreich said the group’s net profit growth for FY16 “will not differ much from that of its loan growth.”

For FY15, AFG saw its net profit dip 5.8% to RM530.78 million, from RM563.55 million; while revenue was up 2.5% to RM1.38 billion, from RM1.35 billion for FY14.

(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.)