BIMB restructuring to complete in 12 months
KUALA LUMPUR: BIMB Holdings Bhd expects its proposed restructuring exercise to be completed within a year, said its chief executive officer, Mohd Muazzam Mohamed.
He said the group was in the midst of obtaining regulatory approvals for the exercise.
“The plan has been there, something that board has already agreed on. It is really on necessary approvals,” he told reporters yesterday a er announcing the group’s halfyear financial performance ended June 30, 2019.
BIMB, a financial holding company, has long been mulling a group restructuring that basically involves its wholly- owned banking entity, Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd, taking over its listing status on Bursa Malaysia.
Mohd Muazzam, however, declined to provide further details on the nature of the restructuring exercise.
“We have an option that we have agreed on in a way but it is subject to approvals.
“We don’t have any specific deals (merger and acquisition) that we are in discussion with in terms of acquiring someone or someone acquiring us. There is nothing at this point of time but, of course, we are not close to something like that,” he added.
The group’s net profit rose 23.5 per cent to RM397.7 million in the first half of 2019 ended June 30, 2019, while revenue for the period jumped 17.5 per cent to RM2.34 billion year- on-year.
The strong performance translated into an annualised a er-tax return on equity of 15.9 per cent, one of the highest in the industry.
Earnings per share also improved to 22.69 sen from 19.10 sen in the same period last year.
Bank Islam’s customer deposits and investment account stood at RM54.7 billion, a year- on-year increase of 10 per cent.
The current and savings accounts and investment account without maturity, low- cost deposits stood at RM14. 2 billion as at June 30, 2019.
The bank profitability outlook for the rest of the year would remain stable despite the challenging economic environment.
“In terms of our profit growth in the first half of this year, we managed to beat the first half of last year.
“Going into the second half of this year, we hope that we can sustain the momentum that we have shown in first half of the year,” said Mohd Muazzam. — Bernama
The plan has been there, something that board has already agreed on. It is really on necessary approvals.
Mohd Muazzam Mohamed
SHORT-TERM interbank rates closed stable yesterday on Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) operations to absorb surplus liquidity from the financial system. The surplus in the conventional system declined to RM22.21 billion from RM27.61 billion this morning, while in the Islamic system, it increased to RM16.93 billion from RM14.34 billion.
Earlier yesterday, BNM issued two conventional money market tenders, three Qard tenders and a reverse repo tender. The central bank revised the overnight Murabahah tender from RM11.4 billion to RM15.9 billion.
At 4 pm, the central bank conducted a RM22.2 billion conventional money market tender and a RM15.9 billion Murabahah money market tender, both for one-day money. The average Islamic overnight interest rate stood at 2.95 per cent, while the one-week, two, and threeweek rates were pegged at 3.03 per cent, 3.07 per cent and 3.12 per cent respectively.