Malaysia: Bank Islam confident of over 15% growth in profit before tax, zakat

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 23, 2013): Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd is confident of achieving more than 15% growth in profit before tax and zakat this year from RM600.3 million last year.

Managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said consumer banking would continue to be the main contributor to achieve the target.

"We target 70% of the financing portfolio to be contributed by consumer banking and the balance of 30% from corporate and commercial banking.

"For the first quarter of this year, the bank raked in profit before tax and zakat of RM151.5 million, and looking at the achievement for the first-half year, we can achieve more than 15% growth that has been set," he said to reporters after the handing over of fund sponsorship for mosques in Malaysia here yesterday.

Zukri said the economic growth which is somewhat slow currently and the new guidelines on responsible lending might affect the bank's financing growth.

"For the moment, as far as Bank Islam is concerned, we are still able to achieve the target that we have set, that is, a financing growth of 20%-25% this year, better than last year.

"I think the new guidelines will affect most of the banks but for Bank Islam we have not see the effects and at this juncture, we are still confident that we are able to show respectable financing growth for this year," Zukri said.

(The Sun Daily / 23 Aug 2013)

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Alfalah Consulting - Kuala Lumpur: www.alfalahconsulting.com
Islamic Investment Malaysia: www.islamic-invest-malaysia.com

Bank Islam Malaysia’s expansion plan into Indonesia hits a snag

Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd’s (BIMB) plan to acquire shares in PT Bank Muamalat Indonesia (PT Muamalat) has hit a snag as its proposal has been put on hold by the Indonesian party.

The proposal to acquire a stake between 30% and 40% in PT Muamalat was first reported by a business daily in February. “Though we have tried twice and failed, we are not going to give up,” BIMB managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat told reporters after the launch of its BIMB Dana Al-Fakhim fund in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He cited no reason for the move by the Indonesian party, but said that BIMB is “still interested in Indonesia”. BIMB’s first-half ended June 30, 2012 (1HFY12), results showed net profit increased by 6.15% to RM198.56 million from RM187.05 in the previous corresponding period. The company’s revenue grew 9.9% to RM610.42 million from RM555.23 million a year ago.

Its year-on-year (YoY) customer deposits grew 19.4% or RM4.6 billion to reach RM28.7 billion, while the company’s net financing grew RM2.2 billion or an annualised growth of 32% to reach RM16.4 billion. Its investment arm, BIMB Investment Management Bhd (BIMB Invest), yesterday launched a money market fund — BIMB Dana Al-Fakhim — with an initial size of RM100 million. BIMB Invest’s asset under management (AUM) stood at RM1.5 billion as of yesterday, according to its chief executive officer (CEO) Nazaruddin Othman.

In his speech earlier, Zukri said BIMB Invest is targeting to become one of the providers for the recently launched private retirement scheme by 2015. He said one of the criteria is that the scheme provider must have a minimum AUM of RM1 billion for three consecutive years.

BIMB Dana Al-Fakhim targets the huge potential that exists in the Malaysian total banking system’s current deposit of over RM1.3 trillion (as at June 2012), apart from complementing BIMB Invest's existing portfolio of funds that currently include BIMB i Growth, BIMB Dana Al-Munsif, BIMB Dana Al-Falah and BIMB i Dividend Fund.

The total industry net asset value of these funds stood at RM31.4 billion. Zukri said the demand for Shariah-compliant funds grew more than 15% YoY over the last three years.

(The Malaysian Reserve / 14 Sep 2012)

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Alfalah Consulting - Kuala Lumpur: www.alfalahconsulting.com
Islamic Investment Malaysia: www.islamic-invest-malaysia.com