KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 21): CIMB Thai Bank PCL, in which CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (KL:CIMB) owns a 94.83% stake, saw its net profit for the third quarter ended Sept 30, 2024 (3QFY2024) surge by 62.1% to 595.67 million baht (RM76.77 million) from 367.42 million baht (RM47.33 million) in the same quarter a year ago, thanks to gains on financial instruments and higher operating income.

Gains on financial instruments came in at 514.64 million baht versus a loss of 64.06 million baht last year, while gains on investments dropped 67.9% to 62.22 million baht compared to 193.88 million baht. Total operating income rose 18.4% to 3.75 billion baht from 3.17 billion baht.

CIMB Thai’s expected credit losses rose to 708.10 million baht as compared to 502.48 million baht a year earlier, CIMB’s filing with Bursa Malaysia on Monday showed.

For the nine months ended Sept 30, 2024 (9MFY2024), CIMB Thai’s net profit grew 8.8% to 1.89 billion baht from 1.74 billion baht in the previous year’s corresponding period, as operating income rose 4.5%, while expected credit losses lowered by 7.7%.

Net interest margin (NIM) over earning assets contracted to 2.3% in 9MFY2024, from 2.6% in 9MFY2023, due to higher cost of funds.

Gross non-performing loans (NPL) stood at 6.4 billion baht, with a lower gross NPL ratio of 2.5% compared to 3.3% as at end-2023.

“The lower NPL ratio was mainly attributed to the sale of several NPLs in 2024, improvement in risk and asset quality management, as well as loan collection processes,” CIMB Thai said in a statement.

CIMB Thai’s loan loss coverage ratio was 138.8% at the end of September 2024, compared to 124.2% at end-December 2023.

CIMB’s share price increased five sen to RM8.20 on Monday, giving the group a market capitalisation of RM87.89 billion.