BANGKOK, 25 April 2011 – CIMB Thai Bank has been successful in recovering from a net loss of 65 million baht in the fourth quarter last year as it has reported a net profit growth of 284 million baht for the operation in the first quarter this year, down 19% year-on-year.
According to CIMB Thai President and CEO Subhak Siwaraksa, the bank extended 97.2 billion baht in loan during Jan-March this year, rising 4% from the previous quarter. Most of the expansion was due to higher loan requests by retail shops and small and medium enterprise (SMEs). Net interest margin in the first quarter stood at 3.8%.
Meanwhile, CIMB Thai Senior Executive Vice President for Strategy and Finance Group Narongchai Wongthanavimok voiced his belief that credit expansion this year would meet the target at 20%, particularly in loans extended to SMEs and large-scaled businesses.
SMEs loans increased from 15% to 21% in the first quarter while retail loans rose from 27% to 29%. Loans to big businesses dropped to 41%. The bank expects that credit extension to the three groups will be at a more balancing level in the future.
The bank has also targeted to increase the interest margin between saving accounts and loans to 3.9%. Meanwhile, the gross non-performing loans (NPLs) stood at 2.6 billion baht, accounting for 2.7% of the total loans. The bank believed that the amount of NPLs would rise a little following the increasing loans.
