RHB Capital Bhd (RHBCap), which was reported to be signing a merger deal with OSK Investment Bank Bhd this week, reported an 8.4% drop in net profit in the last quarter to RM348.4 million from a year earlier on higher provisions.
Full-year net earnings, however, improved 5.7% to RM1.5 billion, or 68.9 sen a share.
"We are focused on concluding our proposed acquisitions of PT Bank Mestika in Indonesia and OSK Investment Bank, which when completed, will provide us access to all the key Southeast Asian markets and move us closer to realising our regionalisation aspirations,'' chairman Datuk Mohamed Khadar Merican said in a statement yesterday.
RHBCap had on Jan 11 submitted an application to Bank Negara Malaysia and the Minister of Finance to approve the merger of RHB banking group and OSK Investment Bank.
Meanwhile, the bank said on Feb 24 it had agreed to extend the deadline to complete the acquisition of an 80% stake in Bank Mestika from Feb 29 to June 30.
RHB derived most of its income from operations at home.
The bank said yesterday domestic loans grew by 15.7% in 2011 to outpace the industry's 13.6% growth rate. Its share of domestic loans improved to 9.3% as at Dec 31, 2011 from 9.1% a year ago.
Customer deposits grew 22.7% to reach RM115.9 billion, and the growth momentum, too, was faster than the industry's 14.3%.
To reward shareholders, RHBCap has proposed a final dividend of 17.84 sen a share to bring its full-year payout to 25.4 sen a share.
"This is in line with the group's stated dividend policy of 30% payout ratio," Mohamed Khadar said.
Posted on 29 February 2012 - 05:36am
