SCB Reports a Steady Yearly Profit at ฿40.4bn, Offering a Dividend at ฿0.75/Share!

The Siam Commercial Bank Public Company Limited (SCB) has reported its yearly financial statement of 2019 through the Stock Exchange of Thailand as follows;

SCB reports a net profit in 2019 at 40.4 billion baht, primarily driven by the recognition of extraordinary gains from sale of SCB Life. Nevertheless, the Bank set aside higher provisions in 2019, resulting in the annual net profit to increase by nearly 1%.

 

In the third quarter, SCB booked a net profit of 10.5 billion baht from normal operations and a one-time capital gain from the sale of SCB Life of 11.6 billion baht to FWD Group Financial Services Pte. Ltd. In this quarter, SCB has set aside additional provisions of 9.1 billion baht on top of its normalized quarterly requirement of 6.2 billion baht.

 

As for its yearly performance, the net interest income grew at 3% yoy to Baht 99.4 billion. Despite falling interest rates in 2019 and a slight decline in the overall portfolio size, the Bank was able to sustain this growth momentum by rebalancing its loan portfolio towards higher margin products.

Non-interest income surged 59% yoy to Baht 66.7 billion mainly due to a large investment gain from sale of SCB Life recorded in late September. Excluding this one-off item, non-interest income would have returned to its growth trajectory of 2% yoy with improved recurring income and a new income stream from the bancassurance partnership that commenced in the fourth quarter.

Operating expenses grew at 9% yoy to Baht 70.5 billion mainly because of one-time personnel expenses to comply with the new labor law and transformation-related expenses. With the strong top-line growth of 20% yoy, cost-to-income ratio declined to 42.5%.

 

Non-performing loan (NPL) ratio rose to 3.41% at the end of December 2019 from below 3% in the first half of 2019. This deterioration reflected a challenging business environment as economic headwinds intensified in the second half of 2019 coupled with the Bank’s prudent loan classification policy.

 

In addition, SCB’s Board of Directors has approved a special dividend payment at ฿0.75/share to be paid on February 14, 2020. The ex-dividend data will be on January 30, 2020.