Malayan Banking Bhd’s (Maybank) registered highest ever net profit of RM8.11 billion for the financial year ended December 31, 2018 (FY18) from RM7.52 billion a year ago, mainly underpinned by higher loans growth, lower overhead costs as well as lower provisioning. Its FY18 revenue also rose 3.8% to RM47.32 billion against RM45.58 billion previously.
Net profit for the fourth quarter, meanwhile, grew 9.1% to RM2.33 billion from RM2.13 billion in the same quarter a year ago, with revenue expanding 3.8% to RM12.23 billion from RM11.79 billion.
The bank has proposed to declare a final dividend of 32 sen per share for the quarter under review.
Together with the 25 sen interim dividend declared earlier, the full-year dividend payout of 57 sen per share amounts to RM6.3 billion or 77.3% of net profit.
The total dividend payout also translates into a higher dividend yield of 6% versus 5.6% in 2017.
In 2018, Maybank’s achieved a record net operating income which rose 1.7% to RM23.63 billion, on the back of a 3.1% increase in fund based income as a result of higher contributions from all business sectors and key home markets.
Group gross loans expanded at a faster pace of 4.8% in FY18, compared with 1.7% previously. The Malaysian operations saw loans expanding 4.8%, Singapore 4.5%, Indonesia 7.0% and 10.9% for other international markets.
Maybank also highlighted that its net impairment losses for the year coming in 20.5% lower than the previous year, lifting operating profit by 9.3% to RM10.8 billion in 2018.
For Q4 alone, it also saw net impairment losses coming in 58.1% lower than Q3.
The bank continued to maintain a healthy liquidity position with its liquidity coverage ratio of 132.4% and loan-to-deposit ratio of 92.7%. Total capital ratio was 18.51% while its fully loaded common equity tier 1 ratio stood at 14.51%, both well above the regulatory requirements of 8.0% and 4.5% respectively.
On its prospects, Maybank said it will maintain its balance sheet expansion in line with forecast economic growth of its three home markets, in tandem with the group’s risk posture, and continue building on its diversified franchise and footprint to expand income streams through cross business collaborations and focusing on diligent pricing of its assets and liabilities.
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the group expects its financial performance for 2019 to be satisfactory in line with the expected growth prospects of its key home markets.
The group has set the headline key performance indicator (KPI) for return on equity (ROE) of approximately 11%.
At 2.35pm, Maybank’s share price was trading unchanged at RM9.54 on 3,344,100 shares done.