Bank Islam Malaysia Berhad reported a net profit of RM394.8 million for the nine months ended 30 September 2023 (9M2023), an increase of 7.9% over the corresponding period in 2022.
The Group’s revenue for the period rose 33.0% to RM3.36 billion (RM3,362.6 million) versus RM2.53 billion (RM2,529.1 million) last year, driven by an improvement in healthy loan growth and net income. This is mainly due to higher non-fund-based income, which surged by RM144.5 million or 95.6% resulting from higher investment income and net gain from foreign exchange transactions. Net fund-based income also increased, driven by year-on-year (y-o-y) gross financing growth, and improving net income margin (NIM). The NIM has consistently improved from 2.06% in 1Q2023 to 2.11% in 2Q2023 and improved further to 2.17% for 3Q2023.’
This performance translates into earnings per share of 17.58 sen and an annualised net return on equity of 7.7%. For the 9M2023, the Board of Directors is pleased to declare an interim single-tier cash dividend of RM285.4 million or 12.59 sen per ordinary share.
The group maintains its full-year 2023 GDP growth projection at 3.7%, a marginal reduction from the official forecast of approximately 4.0%. As the global semiconductor downcycle has seemingly bottomed out and continued improvements in tourism arrivals, we expect Malaysia to sail through its growth momentum in 4Q2023, and subsequently the coming year. This will, in turn, lend support to Bank Islam’s sustained growth in 2024.
