Malaysia's Maybank warns of lower profit-report

KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 (Reuters) - Maybank (MBBM.KL), Malaysia's top lender, expects lower profits in the current fiscal year and may cut its dividend due to the global economic slowdown, the firm's top official was quoted by Business Times on Monday as saying.

Chief Executive Abdul Wahid Omar said bulk of the earnings would come from commercial, consumer and Islamic banking segments but did not say how much lower the profits would be.

In the last fiscal year ending June, the bank recorded 2.9 billion ringgit met profit profits.

"For the current year, we will have to review this indication, but for the long term, we are committed to the 40-60 percent range (dividend as proportion of net profit,"

"We're actually entering this recession, or crisis, with a strong balance sheet and strong assets quality," said Abdul Wahid.

He said the bank's current NPL ratio stands at 1.8 percent while the industry's net NPL ratio was around 2.2 percent.

Loans growth for the lender was expected to range between 6-7 percent in the current fiscal year which was very promising despite the current economic environment, Wahid said.

Shares of Maybank have fallen 14.5 percent so far this year on fears that its rights issue plan worth 6 billion ringgit will dilute the firm's future earnings and lower dividends.

But Abdul Wahid defended the plan, saying it would help in the bank's ambition to become one of the top five banks in Southeast Asia and shore up its balance sheet.

"When we look at our requirements for the next three to five years, we felt that 6 billion ringgit would be an appropriate amount," Abdul Wahid said.

"Once we have enough capital, then there'll be no issue to be able to grow the market, so that means we will be able to capture some loans growth, with much better margins."

Analysts say the bank is also expected to significantly mark down the value of its investment in Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) (BNII.JK) following the sharp fall in BII's market value. The Malaysian bank already booked an impairment loss of 242 million ringgit for its investment in Pakistan's MCB Bank (MCB.KA).

(Reporting by Niluksi Koswanage; Editing by David Chance)