KUALA LUMPUR: AMMB Holdings Bhd
(AmBank) said it is optimistic over its prospects in FY25 now it has arrived at the halfway mark with an improved performance over the previous year.
'“We are pleased with our progress in this first half," said group CEO Jamie Ling in a statement.
"Further net interest margin (NIM) expansion drove net interest income higher and we incurred significantly lower net impairment charges for the period."
During the first six months of the financial year, AmBank posted a net profit of RM1bil, a jump up from RM848.15mil in the year-ago period, while revenue gained to RM2.41bil from RM2.33bil previously.
For the second quarter alone, AmBank recorded a net profit of RM500.57mil, which was higher than RM469.78mil in the year-ago quarter.
The group's earnings per share rose to 15.14 sen against 14.2 sen previously, while revenue climbed to RM1.23bil from RM1.12bil in 2QFY23.
The group declared an interim dividend of 10.3 sen per share, with an ex-date of Dec 12, 2024, and payable on Dec 30, 2024.
According to the statement, the group's net interest income (NII) rose 6.5% year-on-year (y-o-y) to RM1.76bil on the back of a 14 basis points NIM expansion to 1.93% and loans and financing growth.
Non-interest income was 3.9% lower y-o-y to RM644.9mil due to the non-repeat AmGen divestment gains of RM51.1mil and lower trading gains from group treasury and markets.
Overall expenses rose 5% y-o-y to RM1.05bil while cost-to-income rose marginally to 43.6% from 43%.
Meanwhile, total gross loans, advances and financing remained flat year-to-date at RM134.5bil and total customer deposits fell 4.3% year-to-date to RM136.3bil as the group further managed its cost of funds.
Time deposits remained flat at RM90.2bil while current accounts savings account (Casa) decreased 12.7% year-to-date to RM46.1bil and the Casa mix declined to 33.8% from 37.1% in FY24.
