AmBank group chief executive Jamie Ling
KUALA LUMPUR: AMMB Holdings Bhd
is on track with its refreshed Winning Together (WT29) strategy and is optimistic about its prospects in the current financial year ending March 31, 2025 (FY25).
The bank said the pragmatic implementation of Budget 2025, aptly themed "Reinvigorating the Economy, Driving Reforms and Prospering the Rakyat", will provide further impetus for economic activity with fiscal stability.
“We continue to focus on our key strategic priorities and we are executing well in our first year of the WT29 strategy,” group chief executive officer Jamie Ling said in a statement.
In the third quarter ended Dec 31, AMMB posted a net profit of RM486.5mil, or earnings per share of 14.71 sen, lifting its nine-month (9M25) net profit to RM1.5bil, or 44.99 sen per share.
Quarterly revenue rose to RM1.24 bil, bringing the nine-month total to RM3.65bil.
The bank’s net interest income (NII) grew 7.8% year-on-year (YoY) to RM2.67bil, with a 15-basis point (bps) expansion in net interest margin (NIM) to 1.94% in 9MFY25.
Its non-interest income (NoII) fell 2.3% YoY to RM972.6mil in 9MFY25 due to the non-repeat AmGeneral Insurance Bhd (AmGen) divestment gain in 9MFY24 and lower trading gains from group treasury and markets (GTM) offset by broad-based growth in fee income across business banking, wealth management, funds, stockbroking and investment banking. NoII from continuing operations rose 3.0% YoY.
AMMB said its gross loans, advances and financing increased 2.2% year-to-date (YTD) and 4.4% YoY to RM137.1bil, driven by business banking loans growth of 9.7% YTD and 15.2% YoY.
Its gross impaired loans (GIL) ratio remained stable at 1.67%, with a loan loss coverage (LLC) ratio (including regulatory reserves) of 101.8%.
Customer deposits, however, fell 2.8% YTD to RM138.4bil as management’s effort to improve margins continued.
Time deposits grew 4.7% YTD to RM93.8bil while current account and savings account (CASA) balances fell 15.4% YTD to RM44.6bil, with a CASA mix of 32.2%.
The bank's fully implemented risk-based common equity tier 1 (CET1) ratio stood at 14.88%, while its total capital ratio (TCR) was at 17.62%. Including unverified profits from 3Q25), the CET1 ratio increased to 15.33%, with the TCR rising to 18.07%.
“We delivered another strong quarter of earnings, and our year-to-date results for the nine months have been encouraging. We delivered strong loan growth, especially from business banking, while moderating growth in retail banking to de-risk and redeploy our capital resources more profitably in line with our WT29 strategy. Our liquidity levels continue to be ample and our capital levels are strong,” Ling said.
The group’s income growth, underpinned by stable NIMs and loan growth, together with lower impairment charges culminated in another quarter of strong profit after tax and minority interests formation and commendable ROE.
AmBank Group’s liquidity is at comfortable levels while capital position remained strong.
