Malayan Banking Bhd, the top bank in Malaysia, today said first half net profit rose 20.5 percent from the previous year due to better contributions from transactions and a lower loan-loss provision.

Net profit came in at RM2.0 billion, up from RM1.66 billion a year earlier.

Looking ahead, Maybank said it was confident of sustaining the performance in the year to June 2004, in view of the strengthening of the underlying domestic economic fundamentals and the more positive external environment.

Maybank said for the period under review, pretax profit rose 11.3 percent year-on-year to RM2.62 billion.

Business growth

In terms of business growth, the group saw a seven percent growth to RM112.40 billion in its gross loans, despite the very competitive environment, it said.

Maybank said at at end-June, its net non-performing loans (NPL) to total loans ratio stood at 6.20 percent against 7.22 percent in the previous year.

For the fourth quarter to June, net profit improved to RM630.11 million from RM327.92 million previously, while pretax profit rose to RM671.98 million from RM470.56 billion, it said.

Maybank said compared to the third quarter, fourth quarter pretax profit fell 4.5 percent mainly due to higher loan-loss provision and the adoption of a calculation under which handling fees were charged in the period incurred, it said.

Shares in Maybank closed flat at RM9.10 Monday. - AFP