BIMB net earnings climb to RM494.3m

KUALA LUMPUR: BIMB Holdings Bhd's profit before zakat and taxation (PBZT) rose by 20.9 per cent, or RM123.7 million, to RM714.1 million for financial year ended December 31 2012.

In a statement yesterday, group managing director/chief executive officer, Johan Abdullah, said the consolidated net profit for the period under review increased by 17.1 per cent, or RM72.1 million, to RM494.3 million, driven by the growth in its net income on healthy financing and deposits from customers growth, coupled with asset quality.

"The growth in operating results was achieved on the back of RM480.9 million, or 23.6 per cent increase, in revenue," he said.

For financial year ended December 31 2012, the PBZT of unit, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, rose by 21.3 per cent, or RM104.9 million, to RM597.4 million.

BIMB said the improved performance was mainly attributed to growth in business activities during the period under review.

Bank Islam's net financing grew by RM5.3 billion to RM19.5 billion as at end-December 2012, while customer deposits recorded year-on-year growth of 15.1 per cent, or RM4.3 billion, to RM32.6 billion, it said.

The low-cost current and savings accounts (Casa) rose by RM1.1 billion year-on-year, or 9.3 per cent, it said.

"The Casa ratio as at end-December 2012 was 41.2 per cent, well above the Islamic banking industry's ratio of 26.9 per cent," it said.

It said Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd's PBZT increased by 23.7 per cent to RM125.5 million as compared to RM101.4 million in the same period last year.

"In addition to the higher surplus transfer, the higher profit is also attributable to higher net wakalah fee income," it said.

Operating revenue for the financial year ended December 31 2012 improved by 19.5 per cent to RM1.607 billion from RM1.345 billion in the preceding year, mainly due to higher sales generated by family takaful business, it said.

On prospects, BIMB said Bank Islam was expected to maintain last financial year's robust growth.

It said the bank would continue to grow its consumer financing products as well as focus on resilient industries in particular those that are set to benefit from the Economic Transformation Programme.

"Other initiatives included increasing the proportion of floating rate financing, shortening personal-financing tenures and optimising the financing-to-deposits ratio," it said.

It said Takaful Malaysia would continue its "We Should Talk" marketing campaign to propel the growth rate to outpace the industry growth rate to be the leading takaful operator in Malaysia. Bernama