SCB Announces a Dividend Payment at ฿1.50, XD August 28

The Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited (SCB) has announced that the company will pay a cash dividend payment at ฿1.50/share to its shareholders. The ex-dividend date will be on August 28, 2019, and the payment date will be on September 13, 2019.

 

SCB reported a net profit of THB 10,976 million for the second quarter of 2019, an increase of 19.9% quarter-on-quarter due to higher net interest income, higher net fee income and staff cost reverting back to normal after one-time employee expenses (THB 1.4 billion) recorded in 1Q19 to comply with the amended labor law.

While net profit decreased slightly 1.2% yoy from THB 11,111 million in 2Q18, operating profit increased by 4.4% yoy due to higher net interest income, higher net gain on trading and higher net gain on investments.

Expense growth had decelerated in the second quarter largely due to the absence of the one-off provisions to comply with the new labor law. Moreover, the transformation program is near completion and thus bringing the end to the high investment cycle. The underlying cost-to-income ratio improved significantly in this quarter to 46.2% from 51.6% in the first quarter.

For the first half of 2019, net profit stood at THB 20,132 million, a 10.4% yoy decrease from THB 22,476 million in 1H18. The main causes of this decline were the one-time employee expenses necessitated by the amended labor law booked in 1Q19, lower net fee income from the digital transaction fee waiver initiated in late 1Q18, higher provisions and lower net insurance premium. However, these negative factors were partly offset by higher net interest income and higher net gain on investments.

Non-performing loan (NPL) ratio remained stable at 2.77% at the end of June 2019. In the second quarter of 2019, the Bank set aside THB 5.9 billion of provisions or 110 bps in credit cost, bringing NPL coverage ratio to 153%. SCB’s capital adequacy ratio also remained at 17.1%.