KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 27): Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) posted a 50% jump in fourth quarter net profit to RM301.15 million from RM200.73 million a year earlier, after recording a one-off gain of RM354 million from the acquisition of MIDF Group.
Besides the gain on acquisition, the group’s net income for the quarter ended Dec 31, 2023 (4QFY2023) remained predominantly from loans, financing, and financial investments, said MBSB in an exchange filing on Tuesday.
Quarterly revenue rose 4.5% to RM698.05 million from RM668.02 million in 4QFY2022.
Full-year net profit stood at RM491.81 million, up 6.9% from RM460.19 million in FY2022, as revenue rose 4.7% to RM2.82 billion from RM2.69 billion.
MBSB’s financing for the year grew by 9% to RM42.04 billion, mainly contributed by an expansion in commercial financing and retail financing.
Meanwhile, the group’s customer deposits increased by 30.58% to RM47.62 billion year-on-year. As at Dec 31, 2024, the group’s total assets amounted to RM66.66 billion, a 21.3% increase from the previous year.
MBSB did not declare any dividends for FY2023.
Moving forward, MBSB group chief executive officer Rafe Haneef said the group will focus on expanding its current accounts and savings accounts (Casa), financing base, non-funded income as well as optimising its cost.
MBSB's Casa ratio stood at 7.06% versus 6.22% in FY2022, mainly contributed by corporate customers, and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) while term deposits grew by 34.68% or RM9.28 billion.
Rafe added that the group will also aim to realise synergies between MBSB and MIDF to provide customers with better service, innovative products, and personalised solutions, especially for SMEs and retail customers in the mass affluent segment.
"We have established a set of transformative programmes that will run for three years that [are] designed towards achieving these missions and ultimately improve our return on equity," Rafe said.
MBSB completed its acquisition of MIDF from Permodalan Nasional Bhd (PNB) in October 2023. The group issued RM1.01 billion worth of new shares at 96.52 sen per share for the acquisition.
This resulted in PNB emerging as a substantial shareholder in MBSB with a 12.78% stake. Meanwhile, the Employees Provident Fund’s shareholding in MBSB was reduced to 57.45% from 65.78%.
MIDF, now a wholly owned subsidiary of MBSB, is a financial services provider focusing on three core areas — investment banking, development finance and asset management, which also includes shariah-compliant financing and wealth products.
At Tuesday's market close, MBSB shares were down one sen or 1.3% at 76 sen, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM6.21 billion. The counter had climbed 7.04% year-to-date.