Bursa Malaysia Berhad ("Bursa Malaysia") today reported a net profit of RM240.6 million for the financial year ended 31 December 2007 - a 123% jump as compared to the net profit of RM108.1 million in 2006. BursaMalaysia also exceeded all its headline KPIs for 2007 as shown below:

Bursa Malaysia Berhad's ROE of 30.3% more than doubled from its 2006 ROE of 12.8%.  The company also recorded a substantially higher velocity of 53% in 2007, compared to 33% in 2006. On the number of derivatives contract traded, Bursa Malaysia surpassed its target and achieved 49% growth or 6.2 million contracts versus 4.2 million recorded in 2006.

Bursa Malaysia Berhad's Chief Executive Officer, Dato' Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said, "We have charted unprecedented growth for the equities and derivatives markets since our listing in 2005. The bullish market trend for a good part of last year contributed to the positive performance of the equity market.  The derivatives market benefited from the overall upward trend in crude palm oil prices and the movement of the KLCI index. Our profit after tax grew more than double, indicating that we are on the right track in terms of improving performance, efficiencies and investment offerings. This bodes well for our goal of maintaining our competitiveness in the global markets."

Bursa Malaysia's operating revenue for 2007 grew by 69% to RM443.1 million from RM262.1 million last year.  This was mainly due to higher trading revenues achieved in both the equity and derivatives markets for the period under review.  Trading revenue from the equity and derivatives markets recorded an increase of 100% and 35% respectively. The equity market had higher trading activity, recording a daily average trading value (on-market and direct business) of RM2.3 billion in 2007 compared to RM1.1 billion achieved in 2006.

Commenting on current market conditions, Dato' Yusli said that despite the current global economic slowdown, the Malaysian market still demonstrates a high degree of resilience which can be attributed to the country's sound fundamentals. "Our market has reached a new level of maturity and sophistication which is of interest to foreign funds. Combined with the many positive developments in the country such as the government's pump priming measures, liberal fiscal policies and companies' strong financial performances, we have the capacity and strength to deal with the challenges ahead. We are also optimistic about the opportunities in the market and we hope to complement these further with the exchange's initiatives that will boost the market's robustness and liquidity," he added.

Moving forward, the exchange is focusing on growing its retail and derivatives market. Dato' Yusli said, "Retail participation in our equities market has increased to 37% in 2007 compared to 34% last year. While participation has not grown exponentially, there is still untapped opportunity to further attract this segment to view the stock market as an investment option. On our part, we are stepping up efforts via a long-term retail programme to boost this segment's participation in the market. On the other hand, there is sustained interest in our derivatives market as demonstrated by higher volume of contracts. We are leveraging on this trend to further introduce products and services which will create wider appeal amongst the international investors."

Bursa Malaysia Berhad disclosed its 2008 KPI targets as follows:

• 56% velocity on equity trades; in line with achieving sustainable velocity of 60% by 2010
• 50% growth in number of derivatives contracts

For the financial year ended 31 December 2007, the Board of Directors of Bursa Malaysia Berhad will propose a final gross dividend of 25 sen per share which will be tabled at the company's Annual General Meeting in April 2008. The quantum is subject to shareholders' approval. Dato' Yusli said, "The proposed payout demonstrates our commitment to giving sustainable dividends which enhance value to our shareholders. This is also illustrated in our attractive and high total return for shareholders for 2007 of 85%".