Bursa Malaysia Announces Rm224.0 Million Profit After Tax And Minority Interest For The Financial Year Ended 31 December 2018

Bursa Malaysia Berhad (“Bursa Malaysia” or the “Exchange”) today reported a Profit After Tax And Minority Interest (“PATAMI”) of RM224.0 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2018 (“FY2018”), an increase of 0.4% from RM223.0 million reported in the financial year ended 31 December 2017 (“FY2017”). Cost-to-income ratio improved by 1 percentage point to 44% while Return On Equity (“ROE”) remained stable at 26%. The increase in PATAMI was supported by higher operating revenue, which came in at RM523.3 million, a 0.2% increase from FY2017 and lower operating expenses which decreased by 3.6% year-on-year as a result of lower technology and staff costs.

The Board of Directors has approved a second interim dividend of 11.6 sen per share for FY2018, amounting to approximately RM93.7 million which is payable on  28  February 2019. With that, the total dividend (including special dividend) declared for the year amounts to 33.6 sen per share.

Bursa Malaysia Chief Executive Officer, Datuk Seri Tajuddin Atan said, “Despite market volatility and challenging global economic environment, I am pleased to note that Bursa Malaysia’s financial performance remained resilient. Throughout the year, to create a more facilitative environment, we continued implementing initiatives to further enhance the vibrancy and liquidity of the market. This included the launch of Intraday Short Selling (IDSS) for all investors, liberalising margin financing rules and the 6-month waiver of trading and clearing fees for new individual investors (until 18 September 2018). To further align the Exchange with internationally recognised standards, we continued to improve market structure and framework, introducing new sector classification and sectorial indices during the year. We made great strides to improve market liquidity, strengthening the eco-system and reaching out to more investors. The launch of the Mini FTSE Bursa Malaysia Mid 70 Index Futures Contract (FM70) provided the opportunity for a wider group of retail investors to participate in derivatives trading. We will continue to focus on increasing retail participation anchored on our retail investment campaign “Invest Bursa Invest in You” which was launched in September 2018.”

For the year under review, Securities Market trading revenue increased by 2.4% to RM265.8 million from RM259.6 million in FY2017. This was mainly due to from higher Average Daily Trading Value (“ADV”) for Securities Market’s On-Market Trades (“OMT”) in FY2018, which grew by 3.4% to RM2.4 billion from RM2.3 billion in FY2017. Non-trading revenue saw a marginal decrease of 0.1% to RM165.9 million from RM166.1 million in FY2017 due to lower listing and issuer services revenue which decreased by 2.7% year-on-year from FY2017 from lower number of corporate exercises and circular perused in FY2018. This was partially offset by the higher market data revenue, up 4.9% to RM36.2 million from RM34.5 million in FY2017.

The Average Daily Contracts (“ADC”) traded in the Derivatives market in FY2018 were 56,488 contracts, a decrease of 2.1% from 57,677 contracts in FY2017. Trading revenue for the Derivatives Market decreased by 4.8% to RM76.7 million in FY2018 from RM80.6 million in FY2017 as a result of lower number of contracts traded. A total of 13.7 million contracts were traded in FY2018 compared to 14.0 million contracts in FY2017. Crude Palm Oil Futures (FCPO) contracts traded in FY2018 decreased by 12.1% to 10.5 million contracts with hedgers not as forthcoming in using FCPO as a result of lower volatility and weakening prices. FTSE Bursa Malaysia KLCI Futures (“FKLI”) saw an increase in the number of contracts traded in FY2018 by 22.8% to 2.5 million contracts from 2.0 million contracts traded in FY2017. As for the Islamic Capital Market, trading revenue for Bursa Suq Al-Sila’ (BSAS) in FY2018 decreased by 5.6% to RM14.9 million from RM15.8 million in FY2017 mainly due to  higher trades in FY2018 which were under the volume-based pricing scheme that attracts lower fees. ADV of BSAS grew by 24.4% to RM24.3 billion in FY2018 from RM19.6 billion in FY2017 contributed by higher trades from both domestic and foreign participants.

Datuk Seri Tajuddin added, “I believe the strategic initiatives implemented over the years have laid a solid foundation that will place us in a better position to fulfil the needs of our stakeholders and ensure wider relevance and sustainability of our business for long-term value creation. Moving forward, the Exchange will continue to invest in people development and building resilient systems that are crucial towards supporting the growth agenda for the capital market.”

The financial results for the financial year ended 31 December 2018 are available on Bursa Malaysia’s website at www.bursamalaysia.com