CIMB Niaga 9-month net profit climbs 19%

KUALA LUMPUR: PT Bank CIMB Niaga Tbk’s (CIMB Niaga) net profit for the nine months ended Sept 30, 2009 rose 19% to 1.2 trillion rupiah (RM425.76 million) from 966.6 billion rupiah a year ago mainly due to an increase in operating income and improvement in cost efficiency.

The increase in income was due to an improved net interest income and a gain in marketable securities investments of 127.9 billion rupiah last month as compared to a loss of 218.8 billion rupiah in the same period last year, CIMB Niaga said in a statement yesterday.

“Moreover, the bank enhanced its cost efficiency as shown in the improvement of its cost-to-income ratio of 49.9% in September 2009, compared to 61.9% in the previous year,” it pointed out. CIMB Niaga is a 78.3% subsidiary of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd.

According to CIMB Niaga, total loans increased by 3% to 74.1 trillion rupiah in September 2009 as compared to last year’s position, adding that the growth reflected the stability and the diversified nature of its corporate relationships despite the challenging business environment.

The bank also said figures from the first nine months showed there were 642,000 cards outstanding compared to 581,000 previously while auto loans grew by 23% year-on-year to reach 7.9 trillion rupiah.

As a result of its loan growth, CIMB Niaga noted that its loan deposit ratio reached 90.2% in September 2009 as compared to 88.2% in the same period last year, stressing that 20.7% of total loans were disbursed outside Jawa.

It added that non-performing loan (NPL) ratio (gross) stood at 2.8% for the first nine months and the figure was well below the industry average of 4%.

CIMB Niaga president director Arwin Rasyid said the bank’s financial performance showed consistent growth during the first nine months of this year, adding that the bank would continue to strive for product innovation and improved customer service experience.