The Star Online: Business
The Star Online: Business |
- Malayan Banking's Q3 results best ever
- Sony says to make fewer films as it shifts to television
- New Zealand central banker's comments boost 'overvalued' NZ dollar
| Malayan Banking's Q3 results best ever Posted: KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) posted its best quarterly results as net profit surged 16.4% to RM1.74bil in its third quarter ended Sept 30, boosted by higher net fee-based income and a growing Islamic banking business. South-East Asia's fourth largest bank by asset reported an improved revenue of RM8.39bil against RM8bil last year, while earnings per share stood at 20.05 sen. "Yet again, with this quarter's good results, we have created a new profit record for the group. "I am pleased that we are sustaining this growth momentum, by being focused on finding opportunities across our geographic and diverse financial services portfolio through revenue and cost levers amidst the subdued external business climate," chairman Tan Sri Megat Zaharuddin Megat Mohd Nor said in a statement. Nine-month net profit climbed 12.4% to RM4.82bil, or 56.19 sen a share. Analysts had predicted Maybank's full-year net earnings to be around 72.6 sen a share before the latest quarterly results were released yesterday. Alliance Research's banking analyst Cheah King Yoong said Maybank's nine-month financial results made up about 77% of his full-year forecast and was well within consensus numbers. "For now, we do not see a need to revise our earnings forecast significantly," he said. Shares in Maybank slipped one sen to RM9.55 yesterday in a weak market, as the FTSE Bursa Malaysia KL Composite Index (FBM KLCI) dipped four points to 1,794.65. At its last-traded price, the stock was valued at 13.1 times its projected earnings. Shares of most Malaysian banks have lagged behind the FBM KLCI's 6.3% rise year-to-date, partly due to worries that earnings growth might slow down amid tighter credit control. Maybank president and chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said the results demonstrated the group's continued ability to deliver growth in the midst of difficult operating conditions. "We believe there continue to remain windows of opportunity in the different markets we serve, and we intend to remain agile in tapping into these segments. At the same time, our focus would be on finalising our strategy to take the Maybank group to the next level and beyond 2015," said Farid. The group said its return on equity improved to 14.9%, on track for its stated target of 15% for the full year. Group loans rose at an annualised rate of 9.3%, up from 9.1% in the first six months of this year. This was driven by an 8.7% expansion at home and 10% growth at its international operations, led by Indonesia, which grew 19.8%. The group's net interest income and Islamic banking income rose RM194.3mil or 6.7% on-year largely due to the growth in group net loans and advances, including Islamic finance. Last month, Maybank launched its Islamic asset management in London offering Islamic Asian-focused investment capabilities to global investors. Maybank said its non-interest income rose 19.2% to RM248.3mil from a year ago due to a higher net foreign exchange gain of RM830.1mil and a higher fee-based income of RM99.1mil. "The increase was, however, offset by a higher unrealised loss on revaluation of financial assets," it said in the notes accompanying its financial results. Maybank said the allowance for impairment losses on loans, advances and financing increased by RM203.7mil to RM280.3mil for the quarter ended Sept 30. "The increase was mainly due to higher collective allowance made for the quarter. The group's net impaired loans ratio improved to 1.06% as at Sept 30, compared with 1.22% as at Sept 30, 2012," Maybank said. Overall, its net income increased 9.9% year-on-year, outpacing overheads growth, which was managed at 5.7%. Consequently, the cost-to-income ratio improved further to 46.6% in the third quarter compared with 51.2% in the same period a year ago. "Fee-income growth was led by a tripling in net income from the insurance business as well as healthy gains in foreign exchange profit (+81.4%), investment and trading portfolios (+20.6%) and commissions, service charges and fees (+9.8%)," Maybank said. The bank added that the growth in fund-based income came mainly from global markets (+21.8%), corporate banking (+17.9%) and community financial services (+9.6%). |
| Sony says to make fewer films as it shifts to television Posted: LOS ANGELES: Sony Pictures Entertainment will produce fewer films as it makes a "significant" shift from motion pictures to higher-margin television production and to operating TV channels, Sony Corp executives told investors gathered at the company's Culver City, California, studio lot. The declaration came as Sony battles to win investor support after a letter from hedge fund investor Daniel Loeb in May called on Sony to spin off to investors a portion of its entertainment business and take steps to improve the studio's profitability. The studio has identified $250 million in overhead and procurement cost cuts that it expects to make in the next two or three years, said Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton. The studio is also working with a "third party" - identified in prior media reports as Bain & Co - to identify further cuts, he said. Lynton forecast that the company's pictures business, which includes its film and television operations, will have revenues of $8.4 billion in fiscal year 2015, and an operating margin of 7.4 percent. In its music business, the company expects revenue of $4.8 billion with a 9.5 percent operating income margin. Sony studio chief Amy Pascal said the studio will cut the numbers of films it makes, and next year will release fewer than 20 films, down from the 23 it released in prior years. It will release four films in the summer, compared to nine this summer, she said. Sony had a mixed year at the box office, with hits like "Grown Ups 2" and "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," but also flops like "White House Down," which was made for $150 million but generated just $205 million in worldwide ticket sales that it shares with theater owners, according to the site Box Office Mojo. The company had an operating loss of $181 million in its fiscal second quarter that ended Sept. 30 for its pictures unit, which includes film and TV production, the company said on Oct. 31. It cited "White House Down" as one reason for the loss. Traders reacted cautiously to Thursday's presentation, boosting its stock by 0.6 percent to $18.64 a share in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange. It traded as high as $18.79 earlier on Thursday. "My takeaway so far is that Sony Entertainment has tremendous unrecognized depth from TV production of hits like 'Breaking Bad' and leadership in the growth of networks in India," Daniel Ernst, principal at Hudson Square Research, said in an email. "But that depth only reinforces my view that those businesses would get better recognition and unlock more value if they listed a stake of the business separately," said Ernst, who rates Sony shares as a hold. The company, which promised greater transparency to Loeb, reported more detailed numbers for its entertainment businesses than it had done in the past. Loeb's Third Point owns about 7 percent of Sony Corp. - Reuters |
| New Zealand central banker's comments boost 'overvalued' NZ dollar Posted: WELLINGTON: When Reserve Bank of New Zealand Assistant Governor John McDermott said on Friday the New Zealand dollar was overvalued and he would like to see it weaken, it did exactly the opposite and rose to a session high. Speaking in Wellington, McDermott conceded the RBNZ was not inclined to actively weaken the currency as it prepares to raise interest rates next year, which markets took as little more than the central bank's usual jawboning against currency strength and drove it higher. McDermott's comments appeared to acknowledge that the RBNZ was unwilling to enter the $4 trillion-a-day currency market to weaken the "kiwi" at the moment, given its limited resources to take on overseas players controlling roughly 90 percent of trade who have been buying the currency for its relatively higher yield. The kiwi popped up to a session high of $0.8245 after the speech, as the absence of any signal that the RBNZ would try to weaken the currency spurred some buying. McDermott said the New Zealand dollar was at historically high levels due the country's current high terms of trade, particularly booming dairy prices, and relatively strong economic performance. "The Reserve Bank believes that, from a long-term perspective, the exchange rate is overvalued," he said. "The high exchange rate is contributing to economic imbalances and the Reserve Bank would like to see it lower in order to promote more sustainable economic growth." But he added that evidence in New Zealand and other countries suggested that foreign currency intervention was unlikely to have a sustained impact on lowering the exchange rate. Expectations that the RBNZ will raise rates from a record low 2.5 percent early next year has boosted the kiwi, which hovers in range of a post-float high hit against a currency basket earlier this year after gaining nearly 5 percent so far this year. Ongoing strength in the kiwi has been a headache for RBNZ Governor Graeme Wheeler, who said last week that he was concerned that a looming rise in interest rates would put upward pressure on the New Zealand dollar. The RBNZ's tone on the currency's strength has been tempered compared with a speech by Reserve Bank of Australia Governor Glenn Stevens, who on Thursday said he was "open-minded" on whether to intervene to weaken the high Australian dollar, stepping up his rhetoric after long complaining of the currency's strength. "Overall, in this episode so far, the bank has not been convinced that large-scale intervention clearly passed the test of effectiveness versus cost. But that doesn't mean we will always eschew intervention," Stevens told the Australian Business Economists' annual dinner. ANZ currency strategist Sam Tuck said the RBA was taking a stronger position against the "Aussie" as it approaches the end of its monetary easing cycle -- which has done little to depreciate the currency -- while the RBNZ is widely expected to enter a monetary tightening cycle next year. "The RBA can afford to be a bit more activist against the currency because there's no danger in the short term of their actions boosting the currency," Tuck said. "The RBNZ has to be a little bit more pragmatic because they have to justify why strength in the currency isn't going to impede them from achieving their primary goal, which is to ensure price stability and make sure house price and construction inflation doesn't spill into the broader economy." The RBNZ has said it expects to begin raising interest rates, which have been at a record low 2.5 percent since April 2011, sometime in 2014 to counter growing inflation pressures from a stronger economy. Analysts polled by Reuters overwhelmingly expect the tightening cycle to start in March next year, with markets pricing in nearly 100 basis points tightening in a year's time .- Reuters |
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