Alliance’s 1Q pre-tax profit rises to RM180 million

KUALA LUMPUR: Alliance Financial Group Bhd posted a higher pre-tax profit of RM180 million for the first quarter ended June 30, 2017 from RM175.41 million in the same period last year. Revenue grew to RM386.61 million from RM363.81 million previously.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, the company attributed the better performance to higher net interest income, including Islamic Banking Income, which increased by RM16 million or 5.7 per cent due to expansion of total gross loans and investment portfolios.

In a separate statement, group chief executive officer Joel Kornreich said the higher revenue had contributed to a strong return on equity (ROE) of 10.7 per cent for the period under review.

“We also recorded improvement in our net interest margin at 2.32 per cent, with client-based fee income for the quarter improved three per cent year-on-year to RM81.8 million,” he said.

Moving forward, Kornreich said the group would continue to improve balance sheet efficiency by focusing on better risk adjusted return loans, liquidity management, and by mitigating credit risk.

Commenting on Malaysia's economic growth for 2017, the bank expects the gross domestic product (GDP) would slow down to an average of 5.2 per cent in the remaining two quarters of the year.