KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Bank Bhd’s net profit jumped 7.7 per cent to RM2.48 billion for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2019, compared with RM2.31 billion in the year before.
The better performance was mainly due to higher net income, lower expected credit losses for loans and higher write-back of impairment losses for financial assets.
In a filing to Bursa Malaysia today, RHB said its revenue rose to RM13.53 billion from RM12.69 billion in 2018.
For the fourth quarter, net profit jumped 9.8 per cent to RM621 million compared with RM565 million in the corresponding quarter in 2018, while revenue stood at RM3.4 billion versus RM3.3 billion before.
For the year, net fund based income increased by 0.4 per cent to RM4.96 million from a year ago.
“Gross fund based income increased by 5.2 per cent on the back of a 4.3 per cent increase in gross loans and financing, while funding and interest expense rose 9.2 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) due to the impact from the Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) hike in January 2018 and higher deposit base,” it said.
Meanwhile, the group’s gross loans and financing grew by 4.3 per cent year-on-year to RM176.2 billion supported by growth in all businesses, notably mortgages and small and medium enterprise, while Singapore loans grew by 7.6 per cent y-o-y.
Domestic loans and financing grew by 3.9 per cent y-o-y.
Customer deposits grew by 6.5 per cent y-o-y to RM190.6 billion as at Dec 31, 2019, largely attributable to growth in fixed deposits, while total current and savings account (CASA) increased by 5.5 per cent, with CASA composition at 25.7 per cent.
The group has also proposed a final dividend of 18.5 sen per share or 60.0 per cent of the second half of FY2019’s net profit. For FY2019, dividend amounted to 31 sen per share or 50.1 per cent payout.
On the outlook, RHB said it expects the business outlook for 2020 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 on our asset quality,” the bank said. – Bernama
