Bank Islam Malaysia admits to tougher 2012

Challenges facing Malaysia’s first Islamic bank will dent its bottom line this year.

Bank Islam Malaysia Managing Director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat said the year would be a challenging one because of the external situation. He is, however, optimistic the bank will achieve some growth in pre-tax profit.

“We do not think we can achieve the 36% pre-tax profit growth recorded in FY11 for this year financial calendar (FY12),” he admitted.

He said the group expected its loan growth for FY12 at about 12% to 13% compared with 20% in 2011. Bank Islam posted a pre-tax profit of US$153 million for FY11 with non-performing loans at 2.6%.

Zukri said the bank was eager to do business in Indonesia, whose population of 240 million is nearly 10 times larger than Malaysia. Unconfirmed reports said Bank Islam was interested in taking part ownership of PT Bank Muamalat Indonesia, the second largest Islamic lender in Indonesia.