Net profit of the Thai lender was up 62% year-on-year to 595.67 million baht (RM76.77mil).
PETALING JAYA: CIMB Thai Bank PCL’s robust results in the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2024 (3Q24) are expected to contribute positively to parent CIMB Group
Holdings Bhd, says MIDF Research.
Net profit of the Thai lender was up 62% year-on-year to 595.67 million baht (RM76.77mil) on gains from financial instruments and operating income, bringing nine-month ended Sept 30, 2024 (9M24) profitability to 1.89 billion baht.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the 3Q24 robust results by CIMB Thai as we previously had yet to see a meaningful turnaround,” the research house said in a report yesterday.
“We expect that this set of results will contribute positively to the group’s 9M24 performance.”
CIMB Group owns a 94.83% stake in the Thai lender, which contributed 4% to the group’s pre-tax profit in the first half of financial year 2024.
The research house noted that asset quality improved for the Thai subsidiary, while non-interest income and service fees had offset the decline in net interest income due to net interest margin compression.
Operating expenditure rose 6.5% from a year ago due to a higher impairment loss on properties for sale.
However, MIDF Research said lower personnel expenses helped to mitigate some of this impact.
“As such, the cost-to-income ratio was slightly higher at 61.7% in 9M24 compared to 60.6% in 9M23.”
As at end-9M24, CIMB Thai’s total gross loans grew 2.7% year-to-date (y-t-d).
On the other hand, deposits saw a decrease of 8.6% y-t-d.
The research house said it keeps earnings forecasts unchanged for CIMB Group.
“Maintain ‘buy’ with an unchanged target price of RM9.11 based on a price to-book value of 1.29 times for financial year 2025.”
