Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Maybank and the price of its overseas folly

Maybank has reported its lowest annual net profit in a decade after it wrote down the value of its overseas banks.

Net profit for the year to June 30 2009 came in at RM691.9 million, some 76 per cent lower than the previous year's RM2.9 billion.

It booked RM1.62 billion in impairment charges for Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) and RM111.1 million for MCB Bank in Pakistan.

CEO Wahid is actually quoted as saying that Maybank would have made a "reasonable" net profit of RM2.18 billion for the full year had it not been for the impairment charges.

I hope Wahid's statement does not reflect his mindset because it's the type of lame logic used by schoolchildren to their teachers when they do not pass up their homework. And, teachers being clued in on lame excuses will usually mete out swift and painful punishment.

Somehow, one knows such punishment will NEVER be meted out in Malaysia. One just puts one's chin up and carry on...

2 comments:

satD said...

This is a juicy post to comment but must reserve myself...quick question....for u bro de minimis

Was there a sitting CEO when the decision to invest by the Maybank BOD was made??

This one i know answer...hehe but cant say one

MBB was fully aware of the changes in regulatory guidelines at Bapepam-LK and its potential impact, why didn't they 'speed-up' the approval from Bank Indonesia???? If BI approval came out before effective date of Bapepam Rule, MBB would be exempted from the 20% offering requirement....and the 1.6Billion charge la...

This one i don't know why but maybe they malas big time and don't mind losing 1.5 Billion.....

hishamh said...

Wahid is in an impossible spot - defending something not of his making.

Having said that, I'm always suspicious of having a someone without real banking experience in charge of a bank. History is full of financial disasters starting with those conditions.