SME Bank’s pretax profit rises to RM67 mln in 2016

KUALA LUMPUR: Small Medium Enterprise Development Bank Malaysia Bhd's (SME Bank) pre-tax profit for financial year ended Dec 31, 2016 rose to RM67 million from RM48 million a year earlier.

In a statement yesterday, SME Bank said its earnings also improved to RM109 million in 2016 compared to an accumulated losses of RM607 million in 2010 due to the better performance contributed by its banking operations and better investment results.

“This performance is supported by continued growth from gross income of the Islamic banking business which grew by 15 per cent year-on-year to RM336 million in 2016,” it said.

SME Bank said it had received the approval from the Ministry of Finance to convert its RM500 million financing facilities to equity, resulting in a higher paidup capital of RM1.85 billion from RM1.35 billion in 2016.

“The financing portfolio had rose by 12 per cent to RM6 billion in 2016 from RM5.4 billion in 2015,” it said.

On its net impaired ratio, the bank said, it stood at 8.2 per cent in 2016, thanks to its developmental role as a development finance institution (DFI) within a single mandated SME sector.

Group managing director, Datuk Mohd Radzif Mohd Yunus, said being a key player among the six DFIs in the country, SME Bank had garnered 38 per cent market share thus far.

“In sync with the government's initiatives to embrace the future through the adoption of digital technology, we will continue to remain innovative in our approach to improve the services extended to the SMEs,” he said. — Bernama