CO-OPBANK SEES SUSTAINED UPTREND
Optimism on back of expected increase in membership and 5 planned product launches this year
CO-OPBANK Pertama Malaysia Bhd (CBP) expects to extend the uptrend in its financial performance by riding on the country’s growing financial services sector, which is estimated to record RM38 billion revenue this year.
Chairman Kamari Zaman Juhari said earnings this year would be boosted by an increase in the cooperative bank’s membership.
“Other than membership growth, five products that will be introduced in phases this year will also drive CBP’s earnings growth.
The five products are i-factoring, i-contract, banking agent services, revolving credit and mobile banking.
“As such, we expect the strong performance recorded last year to continue this year,” said Kamari after an official visit by Cooperative Commission of Malaysia (SKM) executive chairman Datuk Nordin Salleh, here, yesterday.
Also present were CBP chief executive officer Mohd Nor Abd Razak and SKM executive deputy chairman Meriam Mat Nor.
Kamari said CBP recorded an unaudited profit before zakat of RM52.32 million last year, compared with RM39.73 million in 2017.
“This is a substantial increase of 32 per cent, or RM12.6 million. Our annual income continued to grow at an average of 45 per cent over the three-year period,” he said.
Kamari said the company was close to reaching its target of having RM1 billion share and paid-up capital by next year.
He said CBP had shares valued at RM783.2 million and a total reserve of RM123.6 million.
CBP membership also increased to 85,041 last year, comprising 84,357 individuals and 684 cooperative bodies.
Asked on CBP’s dividend rate for the financial year 2018, Kamari hinted that it would be higher than the 8.5 per cent achieved in 2017.
The dividend announcement will be made in the second quarter of this year.