Public Bank posts RM639m net profit in 3Q

KUALA LUMPUR: PUBLIC BANK BHD posted a stronger set of earnings in the third quarter, with net profit of RM639.04 million, up 3.68% from RM616.34 million a year ago.

It said on Thursday, Oct 15 that revenue for 3Q ended Sept 30 was RM2.438 billion, down 12.6% from RM2.79 billion a year ago. Earnings per share were 18.52 sen compared with 18.37 sen.

For the nine-months ended Sept 30, 2009, net profit declined to RM1.839 billion compared with RM1.927 billion. Revenue slipped to RM7.22 billion from RM7.94 billion.

However, the bank said excluding the one-off goodwill income from ING in 2008, the group's underlying operating net profit for the nine-months increased by 3% from a year ago.

It said the annualised net return on equity (ROE) stood at 25.5%; cost to income ratio remained efficient at 34.6%.

"Net profit of RM639 million for the 3Q of 2009 represents a strong growth of 4.6% as compared to RM611 million achieved in the second quarter of 2009," it said.

Total assets expanded by RM12.9 billion or 6.6% during the current period to RM209 billion as at the end of September 2009.

Total loans and advances increased to RM133.6 billion as at the end of September 2009, representing a growth of 10.7% for the nine-month period to Sept 30, 2009, with the group's domestic market share for loans and advances rising to 15.8% as at August 2009, from 14.8% as at the end of 2008.

Written by Yong Min Wei  

Thursday, 15 October 2009