Maybank earnings rise on loans growth

Malaysia’s largest lender by assets Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) posted a better-than-expected 19% jump in first-quarter net profit as it made more loans in Southeast Asia and as a restructuring of troubled loans last year helped cut its impairment losses.

Malaysian banks are benefitting from a strengthening domestic economy and a recovery in commodity prices.

For most of last year, the commodities downturn and the lingering shadow of a corruption scandal involving state-owned fund 1Malaysia Development Berhad had weighed on them.

Those trends helped CIMB Group Holdings Berhad, Malaysia’s second-biggest lender, post a record quarterly profit a day before.

Maybank reported a net profit of 1.70 billion ringgit ($397.52 million) for JanuaryMarch compared to 1.43 billion ringgit a year ago. That beat the 1.2 billion ringgit average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Its loans grew 10.1% over the same quarter of last year, led by Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore, while net interest margin — the difference between interest paid and earned and a key gauge of bank profitability climbed to 2.43 percent from 2.34 percent.

Maybank said net impairment losses for the quarter fell by 38.2% to 542.8 million ringgit. It expects loan growth of 6-7% for 2017.