UPDATE 1-Malaysia Maybank eyes big leap; Q1 profit up 54 pct

By Soo Ai Peng and Julie Goh KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Malaysia's biggest lender Maybank eyes a big leap in its fiscal 2010 performance after reporting a more than 50 percent rise in first-quarter net profit, helped by a rebound in Asian economies. While the worst is probably over for Malaysian banks' earnings, a slow economic recovery could still curb loan growth, and low interest rates may intensify competition. Maybank, 65 percent owned by government-controlled agencies, is also battling the fallout from a series of expensive acquisitions in 2008. It has launched an ambitious restructuring plan this year to win a place among the top five banks in Southeast Asia. "We are confident of sustaining the current momentum for growth," said Abdul Wahid Omar, Maybank's chief executive. Maybank posted a July-September net profit of 881.8 million ringgit ($260.6 million) compared with 572.2 million ringgit a year ago. The earnings were higher than the average forecast of 720 million ringgit by four analysts surveyed by Reuters. "Our results for this quarter have been boosted particularly by strong performance from our treasury operations, international business, investment banking and insurance," said Wahid in a statement. Earlier this week, Malaysia's top deal maker CIMB said a string of big capital market deals are expected to propel earnings further after a 62 percent jump in third-quarter profit. And DBS Group, Southeast Asia's biggest bank, last week led a surge in quarterly profits among Singapore's three listed banks, all of which beat forecasts and are better positioned than global peers for post-crisis growth. For a graphic on Maybank's earnings click on: http://graphics.thomsonreuters.com/119/MY_MAYBKQ11109.gif Malaysian bank stocks have lagged rivals in Southeast Asia this year, and some analysts, like Trevor Kalcic at RBS in Singapore, don't expect that to reverse soon, given the pressure on their net interest margins from low interest rates, and rising competition, especially in mortgages. Nine out of 21 analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S have "hold" ratings on Maybank, with seven calling it an "underperform", three rating it a "sell" and only two seeing it as a "buy". Shares of Maybank, with a market value of $14 billion, have gained 50 percent this year, outperforming the 46 percent rise in the broader market index, but lagging the more than 100 percent gain for Malaysia's top deal maker CIMB. ($1=3.384 Ringgit) (Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Niluksi Koswanage) (([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging: [e-mail])) Keywords: MAYBANK/ (If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to [e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved.

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