Hong Leong Bank Berhad announced its results for the six months ended 31 December 2022 with net profit after tax for H1FY23 improving 26.7% year-on-year to RM2,024 million.
Gross loans and financing expanded 7.6% y-o-y to RM172.3 billion, maintaining its strong growth trajectory. Asset quality remained solid with a Gross Impaired Loan (“GIL”) ratio of 0.49% and healthy loan impairment coverage (“LIC”) ratio of 210.1%.
Customer deposits for H1FY23 rose by 5.5% y-o-y to RM198.9 billion, with a stable CASA of RM62.2 billion. This represents a CASA ratio of 31.3%, led by the Bank’s effective cash management solutions and various product innovations and offerings.
Residential mortgages grew 8.2% y-o-y to RM86.1 billion, supported by a healthy loan pipeline while transport vehicle loans/financing extend its growth momentum of 10.3% y-o-y to RM18.7 billion, corresponding to the strong growth in sales volume of motor vehicles.
Loans to domestic business enterprises expanded 10.1% y-o-y to RM55.5 billion, whilst the support of SMEs saw this loan/financing portfolio up 11.1% y-o-y to RM31.3 billion. The Bank’s community banking initiative, within the SME segment, also maintained a solid growth of 15.9% y-o-y, attributable to a strong loan/financing pipeline and our continuous innovation
in the digital banking landscape which enhanced customers’ experience via significant improvements in turnaround time from loan application to approval and disbursement.
Loans and financing from overseas operations grew 24.4% y-o-y, led by solid y-o-y growth of 31.9%, 25.6% and 15.8% in Vietnam, Singapore and Cambodia.
Domenic Fuda, Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of HLB commented, “We are optimistic that the continuous expansion in consumer spending and added signs of recovery in investments and China reopening will be key drivers to lead the Malaysian economic expansion in 2023. Despite facing headwinds in the operating environment, we remained resilient and achieved a set of commendable results supported by a strong topline, continued loan/financing expansion, and a healthy balance sheet.
The Board declared an interim dividend of 21.0 sen per share for H1FY23.
