Bank Islam sees less robust profit growth this year

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd expects its pre-tax profit for the financal year ending Dec 31, 2012 (FY12) to be less robust than last year due to the current global economic slowdown.

Managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said this year would be a challenging year for the group because of the external situation but stressed that it was still optimistic to achieved some growth in pre-tax profit.

“We do not think we can achieve the 36% pre-tax profit growth recorded in FY11 for this year financial calendar (FY12),” he told reporters after a signing ceremony for the Corporate Integrity Pledge (CIP) by the bank yesterday.

The signing pledge would make Bank Islam the first Islamic institution to commit to Anti-corruption Principles for Corporations.

Bank Islam posted a pre-tax profit of Rm470.1mil for FY11.

Zukri also said the group expected its loan growth for FY12 would be about 12% to 13%, compared with 20% previously.

He also said the non-performing loan for the bank stood at about 2.6% in FY11.

Later, he said the bank was keen to have business in Indonesia because of the potential of consumer banking from the country’s 240 million population but declined to reveal more on that matter.

Earlier report citing sources said Bank Islam was in early talks to buy a stake in PT Bank Muamalat Indonesia, the second largest Islamic lender in Indonesia. Zukri declined to name the bank the group was talking to.