Malaysian Rating Corporation Berhad (MARC) held its 23rd Annual General Meeting (AGM) at TPC Kuala Lumpur on June 19, 2019.
MARC generated consolidated revenue of RM14.9 million and consolidated pre-tax profit of RM2.8 million in 2018,” said MARC Chairman Datuk Azizan Haji Abd Rahman in his review of the company’s results for financial year ending 31 December 2018. He also added that overall demand for MARC’s credit opinions continue to be at satisfactory levels amid strong business development efforts.
MARC’S bond and sukuk ratings improved in 2018 both in terms of rating accuracy as well as rating stability. The long-term rating accuracy ratio, which measures MARC’s effectiveness in predicting defaults, rose to 68.6% from 68.3% a year earlier. MARC’s long-term average rating stability rate, which looks at the frequency and magnitude of ratings changes over the period of 1998-2018, increased to 86.3%, from 85.6% in 2017, MARC’s highest in 18 years.
MARC continues to maintain a significant presence in the domestic debt capital markets with ratings on active bonds and sukuk issuances amounting to RM33.9 billion. As at December 31, 2018, MARC has completed 802 ratings since its inception, amounting to RM540.2 billion (USD128.3 billion) in issuance value.
Datuk Azizan said, “During 2018, MARC expanded into analytics consulting services by undertaking its maiden internal rating model validation and enhancement engagement for a financial institution. This type of engagement creates an excellent avenue for MARC to develop new intellectual property and to hedge against any slowing future growth prospects for its core credit rating business.”
MARC was named Malaysia’s Rating Agency of the Year 2018 by Hong Kong-based The Asset magazine’s Triple A Rating Agency of the Year Awards 2018. MARC was also recognised, once again, by Global Islamic Finance Awards (GIFA) for its commitment to keep pace with market innovation in Islamic finance and provide robust credit analysis. MARC was named Best Islamic Rating Agency for the fourth time on September 29, 2018.
In his closing remarks, Datuk Azizan concluded, “Growth in domestic financial and non-financial earnings is set to moderate in 2019, tracking the more subdued GDP growth outlook. MARC expects corporate bond and sukuk issuances to settle between RM80.0 billion and RM90.0 billion in 2019 after contracting by 15.4% to RM103.9 billion in 2018 on the back of slower growth in business and public investments.”
The company’s shareholders adopted the financial statements and approved a final dividend of 10.0 sen per share for the financial year ended December 31, 2018.
Contacts:
Beatrice Thio, +603-2717 2946 / beatrice@marc.com.my;
Lalitha Sivanesan, +603-2717 2953 2925 / lalitha@marc.com.my;
Nurfarain Mohd Dom, +603-2717 2925 / farah@marc.com.my;
