KTB posts rise in first-quarter profit

Krungthai Bank (KTB), the country’s second-largest lender by assets, delivered a 13.2% year-on-year increase in unreviewed first-quarter net profit, crediting higher net interest and income from fees and services, as well as lower loan impairment charges.

But the state-owned bank’s consolidated non-performing loans (NPLs) still climbed by 10.2% year-on-year in the quarter to 100.38 billion baht, pointing to an increase in bad corporate and small and medium enterprise (SME) loans, KTB said in a filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

KTB’s gross NPL also added to 4.36% of the loans outstanding of 1.91 trillion baht at the end of March from 3.97% at the end of December.

The bank was the first among the country’s four large banks announcing first quarter earnings, while other three — Bangkok Bank (BBL), Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and Kasikornbank (KBank) — will report their earnings later this week.

KTB’s net profit amounted to 8.9 billion baht for the three months to March, compared with 7.86 billion over the same period last year.

During the January-to-March quarter, net interest income rose by 2.2% year-onyear to 21.8 billion baht, and net fee and service income surged by 9.7% to 5.72 billion.

Net interest margin (NIM) rose to 3.42% in the first quarter from 3.17% over the corresponding period last year.

The bank set aside 7.46 billion baht in loan-loss buffers for the first quarter, down 13.5% over the previous 12 months. KTB’s coverage ratio fell to 112.1% at the end of March from 121.6% at the end of 2016.

Smaller banks’ quarterly balance sheets, however, appeared to be in a better shape than KTB’s as seen by the fact that Thanachart Bank (TBank), TMB Bank (TMB) and Tisco Financial Group earnings improved and their bad loans declined or were steady.

TBank’s net profit rose 15% to 3.27 billion baht for the first quarter from 2.84 billion over the same period last year, thanks to increases in interest and non-interest income, and declining loan-loss reserves.

The country’s sixth-largest lender by assets saw its interest income clawed up by 1.8% over the same period last year to 7.14 billion baht during the January-to-March quarter as interest spread rose to 3.05% from 2.87%, and its non-interest rate inched up by 1.5% to 2.81 billion.

Loan-loss reserves set aside for the first three months of this year were halved to 897 million baht from 1.8 billion over the corresponding period a year before, the bank said in its filing with the SET.

Despite the lower impairment costs, TBank’s coverage ratio continued rising to 156.8% at the end of March from 121.9% over the same period last year and 151.16% at end-2016 due to falling bad loans.

The bank’s NPLs were to the tune of 15.6 billion baht at the end of last month, compared with 20.6 billion over the same period last year and 16.4 billion at the end of December.

TBank’s NPL ratio also declined to 2.21% at the end of March from 2.7% over the same period last year.

TMB, the country’s seventh-largest bank by assets, recorded a net profit of 2.09 billion baht for the first quarter, up 0.2% yearon-year. It posted a bit higher net profit, though impairment costs surged by 19.4% year-on-year to 2.24 billion.

TMB’s net interest income rose by 3.9% to 6.16 billion for the three months to March, and its net fee and service income soared by 10.4% to 2.03 billion.

The bank’s consolidated NPL at the end of March was steady at 17.6 billion baht from the end of last year but down from 21.4 billion over the same period last year.

Tisco, the parent holding firm of Tisco Bank, posted a 18.8% increase in the first quarter net profit to 1.49 billion baht due to larger net interest and non-interest income, and lower loan-loss provision.

KTB shares closed yesterday on the SET at 19.70 baht, down 1.10 baht, in trade worth 5.44 billion baht. TMB shares closed at 2.18 baht, down 14 satang, in trade worth 1.18 billion baht. TISCO shares closed at 73.50 baht, unchanged, in trade worth 706 million baht.