CIMB Group Plans Philippines Branch By 2018 Through Organic Growth

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26 (Bernama) -- CIMB Group Holdings Bhd, which aims to complete its footprint in ASEAN by 2018, plans to set up its Philippines operations from scratch instead of going through a merger and acquisition exercise. Currently, the bank had already established a wide presence in ASEAN with Vietnam and the Philippines being the final two missing pieces. Chief Executive Tengku Zafrul Aziz said CIMB would commence operations of its Vietnamese branches in Ho Chi Minh and Hanoi by year-end. "The Philippines is still in our radar screen but we will do it at the right time. Perhaps it will not be done through mergers and acquisitions but more towards organic growth expansion. "This is because the Philippines has liberalised the regulations on foreign shareholdings, so we will not discount the possibility of starting a branch there from scratch," he told a press conference after announcing the group's 2015 financial year results here Thursday. CIMB Group posted a pre-tax profit of US$925.4 million (RM3.91 billion) in 2015 compared with US$1.01 billion (RM4.28 billion) in 2014, on the back of a bigger revenue of RM15.39 billion against RM14.15 billion previously.(US$1=RM4.22) For the 2016 financial year, he expected loans growth to expand by 10 per cent compared with 12.6 per cent registered in the 2015 financial year, considering the challenging economic climate He also said the group would continue managing cost levels through increasing productivity and having better procurement, as well as, actively assessing the situation for a possible reduction in headcount. For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2015, CIMB Group posted a lower pre-tax profit of RM3.91 billion from RM4.28 billion in 2014 on the back of a higher revenue of RM15.4 billion from RM14.15 billion previously. For the fourth quarter, its pre-tax profit surged to RM1.13 billion from RM384.94 billion recorded in the same period in 2014 while revenue rose to RM4.04 billion from RM3.67 billion. -- BERNAMA