Bangkok Bank's net profit plunges 14% in 2Q16

Investment gains also declined 97%.

According to Maybank Kim Eng, BBL reported disappointing 2Q16 earnings (-14%QoQ/-11%YoY), falling short of consensus estimates by 14%. Almost every component was in line as expected, except for non-interest income, which was due to the plunge in gains from investments.

Details are not available at the moment, but the analyst believes it’s possibly a one-off event. "We remain optimistic BBL’s operations will improve in 2H when the government-led investments kick in. We roll over our valuation to next year without changing our projections."

"Interestingly, BBL recorded only THB51m of gains from investments, a 97% decline from THB1,531m in 1Q16. This is very strange as, for the past decade, this item has rarely been below THB100m. In fact, it had been more than THB1b for the past five quarters. We will request more information from management regarding this item. We believe this should be a one-off occurrence and that the income from this category should return to normal in 3Q16," adds Maybank Kim Eng.