China Merchants Bank Co Ltd

SSE:600036

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q1

[Jianjun Liu, executive]

Dear investors, analysts, good morning. CMB 2021 first quarter result announcement will now begin. I am CMB's Securities Affair Representative, Head of the Office of the Board, Liu Jianjun, also the host of today's conference. Today -- and first of all, I would like to introduce CMB attendees. They are Executive Vice President and Board Secretary, Mr. Liu Jianjun; Head of Asset and Liability Management Department, Mr. [indiscernible]; Head of Financial Accounting Department, Ms. Li Li; Head of General Office of Corporate Finance, Mr. [indiscernible]; Head of General Office of Retail Finance, Ms. [indiscernible]; Head of Risk Management Department, Mr. [indiscernible]; and Head of CMB Wealth Management Company, Mr. [indiscernible]. On behalf of CMB, I would like to extend warm welcome to your attendance. Also, thank you for your long attention, support and investment in CMB.

Today's event has 2 sessions. First of all, we would like to introduce briefly over CMB's 2021 Q1 results. It takes around 30 minutes. The second session is about Q&A. It takes around 1 hour and 15 minutes. We will provide simultaneous interpretation for today's event.

Now I would like to give the floor to Mr. [Li Jianhong] and invite him to introduce CMB's 2021 first quarter results.

[Unknown Executive]

Dear investors, analysts, now I would like to introduce CMB's 2021 first quarter results. So first of all, the statistical calibre adopted in today's presentation is the IFRS calibre. Also the announcement calibre for our H shares.

For the first quarter, under the continuous recovery of domestic economic situation, CMB adhere to light model as our strategic direction and One Body with Two Wings as our strategic positioning continue to build digital bank, explore to construct extensive wealth management, cyclic chain of value, and realize dynamic and balanced development between quality, efficiency and scale.

First of all, our profit has achieved higher speed of growth. Net revenue and net income both record double-digit growth. The group has recorded net revenue of CNY 84.8 billion, up by 11.09% year-on-year. Net income attributable to the bank's shareholder was CNY 32.02 billion, up by 15.18% year-on-year, both higher than the level of that of last year.

Secondly, our NIM has record positive growth quarter-on-quarter with increased -- enhanced asset and liability structure. As LBR has been under several cuts previously, I think the banking industry are also under pressure in terms of their NIMs. For the first quarter, the group has recorded a NIM of 2.52%, down by 4 bps year-on-year, but 11 bps higher quarter-on-quarter. The main reason is that the company adhered to take core deposits as our main engine for deposit growth.

For the first quarter, demand deposit proportion in total deposits was 65.13%, up by 4.27 percentage points compared with daily average of last year. We have also record a decrease in deposit costs. Secondly, we have speed up our loan investment in the first quarter. High yield asset accounts for high proportion. Interest-earning assets yield also increases quarter-on-quarter.

Thirdly, we have maintained our asset quality with declining NPL ratio. By end of the quarter, the company's NPL balance totaled CNY 54 billion, up by CNY 442 million. NPL ratio was recorded at 1.02% down by 0.05 percentage points compared with the end of last year. We see risks concentrated and exposed in credit card assets. And I think it's the quality of this type of assets have shown active signal with recorded decrease in both balance and their proportion in total loan, among which our NPL ratio was 1.62%; special mention, 2.94%; and overdue, 2.5%, down by 0.04, 0.08 and 0.19 percentage points. NPL coverage ratio 438.88%, up by 1.2 percentage points.

Fourthly, our retail AUM has shown great momentum of growth, which is also driving the fast growth of fee income. Our retail AUM increment has surpassed CNY 1 trillion, hitting the historic high. And in this year, our retail AUM keep its robust growth. By the end of first quarter, our retail AUM achieved CNY 9.59 trillion, up by 7.3% compared with the end of last year with a CNY 650 billion increments for a single quarter.

Sunflower and above level clients AUM achieved CNY 7.88 trillion. PB AUM achieved CNY 2.98 trillion, up by 7.55% compared with the end of last year. Driven by these factors, the company's noninterest net income achieved fast growth, recorded CNY 35.3 billion, up by 15.36%, accounting for 41% over the general net revenue, among which net handling fee and commission income recorded 27.2% -- CNY 27.2 billion, up by 23.3%, contributed mainly by agency sales of funds, insurance, trust and also settlement and clearing and custodian fee. Of course, it is also clear to us that some indicators in Q1 report were just not ideal enough. I would like to make several explanations as follows. First of all, we make adequate and early arrangement in terms of our low-end investments. Our CAR of each level has decreased. Among which CET ratio under the advanced and risk-weighted approach was respectively 12.19% and also 10.6%, down by 0.1 and 0.08 percentage points compared with the end of last year.

We will stick to the light model bank direction and also maintain a steady growth of our risk-weighted assets to achieve the endogenous balance of our capital. Secondly, our NPL formation in terms of our balance and ratio both record year-on-year growth. We are faced with challenges in terms of controlling our asset quality. Our newly formed NPL balance was CNY 111.5 billion in the first quarter. Annual formation ratio was 0.95%, among which corporate NPL ratios formation balance was CNY 3.38 billion. It's mainly because some corporate clients obtain high leverage ratio with underperforming profitability and cash flow. And also, credit card was influenced by the post-pandemic situation and joint debt risk with newly formed NPL balance of CNY 7 billion, up by CNY 540 million.

Looking into the full year, we will still keep adhered to our strict categorization of assets and fully exposed risks, keep optimizing credit policies and enhance our recognition and study of our industries and enhance our review and due diligence over key risk areas and make high-efficient disposal of NPL assets.

Thirdly, influenced by market interest rates increases, for the first quarter, our net noninterest income of other types was recorded CNY 8 billion, down by 5.11%, mainly because of the decreasing market interest rates of the last period -- of the period -- of same period of last year. Looking into the full year, as we see recovery in the macroeconomic situation and a better recovery of the pandemic situation, we expect that, in fixed income, precious metal and FX market, the fluctuation would be less than that of 2020. Of course, we are still in the continuous recovery of domestic economy, and our foundation of the economic development are still not that solid. We will maintain our determination and stable operation to be outstanding in the market and outperform our peers, bringing solid return to our investors.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you. Mr. Liu. We will now enter into the Q&A session.