KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Bernama) — CIMB Group Holdings Berhad (“CIMB Group” or the “Group”) announced a profit before tax (“PBT”) of RM1.53 billion and a net profit of RM1.19 billion for the financial year ended 31 December 2020 (“FY20”). Despite the year-on-year (“YoY”) decline in PBT and net profit, the Group’s underlying business proved resilient. FY20 pre-provisioning operating profit (“PPOP”) declined only marginally by 1% to RM8.21 billion, while operating income remained stable with a slight decrease of 3.4% to RM17.19 billion. Aggressive cost reduction targets were also exceeded with a 5.5% or RM524 million decrease in operating expenses leading to an improved cost-to-income ratio (“CIR”) of 52.2%, down 1.2% YoY. Topline resilience, cost discipline and proactive measures to protect asset quality enabled the Group to strengthen its financial position and ensure it remains well-capitalised against shocks, leading to its highest CET1 ratio of 13.3%. CASA also grew strongly by 22.6% in FY20, bringing the CASA ratio to 41.3% as at December 2020 from 34.4% in the previous year.
The Group’s FY20 performance translated to an annualised return on average equity (“ROE”) of 2.1% and earnings per share (“EPS”) of 12.0 sen. It declared a proposed annual dividend of 4.81 sen per share, amounting to a total payout of RM477 million and a payout ratio of 40% in line with its dividend policy.