MBSB FY17 earnings double to RM417m

MBSB president and CEO Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaini Othman said:

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Building Society Bhd's (MBSB) earnings jumped 107% to RM417mil in the financial year ended Dec 31, 2017 and it remains upbeat for FY18, focusing on affordable housing projects and selected SME sectors and to roll out new products.

MBSB said on Tuesday the substantial increase in profits for FY17, compared with RM201.41mil in FY16, was due to the lower cost of funds. 

Another factor was lower allowances for the impairment losses on financing, loans and advances which fell 23% to RM600mil from RM777.26mil a year ago.

MBSB's profit before tax for FY17 rose 62.7% to RM550.73mil from RM338.42mil. Revenue was RM3.26bil compared with RM3.27bil.

For the fourth quarter, its earnings surged 171% to RM123.98mil from RM45.64mil a year ago. Allowances for impairment losses on loans, advances and financing fell to RM109.45mil from RM168.86mil.

Its revenue dipped to RM818.27mil from RM819.40mil. Earnings per share were 2.09 sen compared with 0.79 sen. It announced a dividend of five sen a share compared with three sen.

On a quarterly basis, MBSB said profit after tax PAT rose 23% from RM100.74mil in Q3FY17. 

MBSB president and CEO Datuk Seri Ahmad Zaini Othman said: “With the ending of the impairment programme in Q4 of FY17, we have achieved what we had planned when it was first initiated in the Q4 of 2014. 

“Our 4Q17 and FYE 2017 results were partly attributed by strengthened collection efforts which in turn have reduced the impairment allowance for the year,” he said.

In FY17, MBSB group’s gross financing and loans fell 3% from RM35.28bil in FY16 to RM34.20bil in FY17.

“This is due to the reclassification of selected impaired retail financing and loans to financial assets held-for-sale and which sale is expected to be completed in the first quarter of this year. 

“Nevertheless, gross corporate financing and property financing have recorded notable annualised growths of 10.01% and 16.29% respectively,” he said. 

Zaini said MBSB would continue to be selective in growing the financing assets but certain corporate segments have continued to be viable and “we have managed to secure substantial financing stock moving into the new year from these segments”.