TMB, TBank Q3 profits rise

TMB Bank’s third-quarter net profit more than doubled, largely due to a one-off gain of 11.8 billion baht from divestment of a 65% stake in TMB Asset Management (TMBAM) to Eastspring Investments, an asset management arm of Prudential Corporation Asia.

The country’s seventh-largest lender by assets delivered a 179% year-on-year surge in net profit to 5.59 billion baht in the July-to-September quarter, according to yesterday’s filing with the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

The bank’s net interest income edged down 1% year-on-year to 6.13 billion baht during the three months to September, due to higher interest expense after larger deposits and funding costs, while net noninterest income jumped 368% year-on-year to 14.5 billion.

Other non-interest income increased from the TMBAM deal, the bank said.

Impairment charges for credit loss, however, jumped to 9.39 billion baht for the third quarter from 2.39 billion a year earlier.

“The bank set aside additional provision as a cushion for a prudent qualitative loan downgrade and in preparation for IFRS 9 implementation, which will be adopted in 2020,” TMB said.

Consolidated bad loans climbed to 21 billion baht at the end of September from 18 billion as of June and 17.5 billion at the end of 2017. The bank’s gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio rose to 2.69% at the end of September from 2.35% at the end of last year.

TMB’s net interest margin narrowed to 2.9% for the three months to September from 3.11% a year earlier.

For the nine-month period, the bank’s net profit leapt 54% year-on-year to 9.9 billion baht.

Meanwhile, Thanachart Bank (TBank) said its third-quarter net profit was 3.54 billion baht, up 1.8% year-on-year.

The bank’s interest income for the three months to September rose to 7.84 billion baht from 7.57 billion a year earlier, while its non-interest income fell 24% to 2.41 billion.

TBank set aside a loan-loss provision of 1.23 billion baht for the third quarter, compared with 1.7 billion a year ago.

The bank’s gross NPLs rose to 2.42% of loans outstanding at the end of September from 2.3% at the end of 2017.