Malaysia Building Society Berhad posts 40% rise in third-quarter profit

Malaysia Building Society Berhad, the parent of Islamic bank MBSB, posted an increase of 39.52% in third-quarter profit.

The Group’s profit reached 170.16 million ringgit ($40.86 million) for the three months ending September 30 compared to 121.96 million ringgit for the same period in 2018, it reported in a bourse filing on Wednesday (Nov 20).

The higher profit is due to a reversal of an overprovision of tax expenses after the Group finalised taxation for 2018 during the third-quarter, it said.

Malaysia Building Society Berhad acquired Asian Finance Bank and re-branded it to become MBSB Bank in 2018. MBSB, the Group’s largest subsidiary, obtained its Islamic banking licence in April 2018.

 “As a new Islamic banking group in the industry, the Group is looking forward to expand its products and services which include trade finance, wealth management and internet and mobile banking to cater various segments of customers and depositors,” said the company.

The Group’s assets stood at 50.55 billion ringgit, an increase of 11.29% from the end of 2018.

This was propped up by a 3.19% rise in financing to 34.19 billion ringgit.

On the liabilities side, deposits from customers grew 12.34% to 27.2 billion ringgit.

In June, the Group told local media it was restructuring to make MBSB Bank its holding company. It also said at the time that it was converting its conventional assets worth 1 billion ringgit to Islamic assets.

In its third-quarter report the Group said it is “actively converting conventional mortgage to Islamic property financing during the quarter”.

($1 = 4.1625 Malaysian ringgit)

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