Grab's Ecosystem Starts Doing What Deposits Alone Couldn't
The Q1 2024 post on this blog flagged a loan-to-deposit ratio» that had spiked to 515.13% after deposits fell 34.5% in a single quarter. Superbank's H1 2024 filing (period ended June 30, 2024, cumulative January-June) shows that gap narrowing again - LDR eased to 376.29% - and this time the mechanism is disclosed plainly in the bank's own July 26, 2024 press release: "new synergy with the Grab ecosystem has increased the number of customers and driven the growth of total third party funds... by 71% year-on-year... mainly driven by current account and savings account (CASA») growth of 264%." Total deposits reached Rp993,983 million at June 30, 2024, up from Rp603,407 million just one quarter earlier - a real sequential recovery, not just a favorable year-ago comparison this time.
The improvement is real, but it hasn't reached the bottom line yet. Net interest income grew 85.6% year-on-year to Rp246,627 million, and both efficiency ratios (BOPO» and Cost-to-Income) improved - yet the net loss still widened 66.9% year-on-year to Rp188,463 million, because the absolute cost base keeps growing faster than the absolute margin, even while the ratios between them get better. A bank can be improving on every ratio a reader would check and still be losing more money in absolute terms, and this quarter is exactly that combination.
The Prescription
Superbank has now shown, in a single quarter, that it can close a self-inflicted funding gap when it actually prioritizes deposit-side distribution: routing account-opening and savings through the Grab app - "the first bank with the digital service in Indonesia" to let Grab users open accounts and pay directly from them without a separate app download - is the single most effective lever this bank has pulled so far. The move that compounds from here is treating that Grab-integration channel as the primary deposit-acquisition engine going forward, not a one-quarter correction to an LDR problem flagged two posts ago.
What it should stop doing: treating capital injections as the default lever for supporting growth instead of the backstop. Shareholders added a further Rp1.2 trillion in H1 2024 (per the bank's own release, from Grab, Singtel, and KakaoBank specifically) - the fourth consecutive period this blog has recorded shareholders funding growth directly, after the Rp1.2 trillion raised during FY2023 itself and the Rp1,086 billion prepaid by A5-DB Holdings and Singtel Alpha Investment in February 2024 (see the FY2023 and Q1 2024 posts). Now that this quarter has proven deposits can actually be grown organically through ecosystem distribution, capital injections should become the exception, not the recurring mechanism, for funding the next leg of loan growth.
Key Financial Metrics
H1 2024 vs. H1 2023 (P&L, six months ended June 30, cumulative), and Jun 2024 vs. Dec 2023 (balance sheet) - bank-only ("Individual")
FX: IDR 16,343 = USD 1 (June 28, 2024 close, applied throughout for consistency).
| Metric | H1 2024 (IDR) | H1 2024 (USD) | H1 2023 (IDR) | YoY |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Net Interest Income | Rp246,627M | ~$15.1M | Rp132,899M | ✅ +85.6% |
| Non-interest operating income (expense), net | Rp(439,219)M | ~-$26.9M | Rp(247,001)M | ⚠️ cost widened 77.8% |
| Operating Loss | Rp(192,592)M | ~-$11.8M | Rp(114,102)M | ⚠️ loss widened 68.8% |
| Net Loss | Rp(188,463)M | ~-$11.5M | Rp(112,920)M | ⚠️ loss widened 66.9% |
| Balance sheet metric | Jun 2024 (IDR) | Jun 2024 (USD) | Dec 2023 (IDR) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total Assets | Rp6,743,690M | ~$412.7M | Rp5,556,074M | ✅ +21.4% |
| Loans (Kredit yang diberikan, gross) | Rp3,740,279M | ~$228.9M | Rp2,920,823M | ✅ +28.1% |
| Total Deposits (Giro + Tabungan + Deposito) | Rp993,983M | ~$60.8M | Rp921,706M | ✅ +7.8% |
| Total Liabilities | Rp1,332,844M | ~$81.6M | Rp1,187,736M | ➖ +12.2% |
| Total Equity | Rp5,410,846M | ~$331.1M | Rp4,368,338M | ✅ +23.9% |
Net Interest Income stands in for "Net Revenue"; Adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow don't apply to a bank and are omitted. This is the bare, unaudited OJK quarterly-publication format with no cash flow statement or footnotes attached - as with Q1 2024, no new footnote-level findings are available this quarter beyond what the FY2023 annual report already surfaced.
A bank whose margin, efficiency ratios, and deposit base are all improving can still be losing more money than a year ago - which is exactly the combination this quarter shows, and exactly why no single ratio tells the whole story on its own.
Key Operational Metrics
Funding & Liquidity
- Loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR»): 376.29% (Jun 2024), up from 218.23% (Jun 2023) year-on-year, but down from 515.13% (Mar 2024) quarter-on-quarter - the funding gap flagged last quarter is narrowing, not closing.
- CASA» (Giro + Tabungan): Rp659,074 million (Jun 2024), up 264.4% from Rp180,910 million (Jun 2023) per the bank's own disclosed figures - the growth driver behind the deposit recovery above, and a meaningfully cheaper funding mix than time deposits (Deposito), which actually make up a smaller share of total deposits than a year ago.
Credit Quality
- NPL» ratio - gross: 4.31% (Jun 2024), up from 3.65% (Jun 2023) year-on-year, but down from 4.76% (Mar 2024) quarter-on-quarter.
- NPL ratio - net: 0.43% (Jun 2024), improved from 0.58% (Jun 2023) - unlike the gross ratio, the net figure actually improved year-on-year, implying heavier provisioning against the marginally larger problem-loan pool.
- CAR» / KPMM: 173.37% (Jun 2024), down from 237.91% (Jun 2023) - continuing the multi-quarter erosion flagged since the FY2023 post, though the fresh Rp1.2 trillion shareholder injection this half kept the buffer far above the regulatory minimum.
Profitability & Efficiency
- NIM»: 8.14% (H1 2024), up from 7.08% (H1 2023) - the fourth consecutive period of margin expansion recorded on this blog.
- ROA: -6.06% (Jun 2024), a smaller loss ratio than -5.56% is technically worse, but shallower than the -7.16% recorded just one quarter earlier at Mar 2024 - the sequential trend, not the year-on-year one, is what's actually improving here.
- ROE: -7.85% (Jun 2024), versus -6.77% (Jun 2023) year-on-year and -9.04% (Mar 2024) quarter-on-quarter.
- BOPO»: 168.07% (Jun 2024), improved from 174.15% (Jun 2023) - the first year-on-year improvement in this ratio recorded on this blog, after it worsened in both the FY2023 and Q1 2024 posts.
- Cost-to-Income Ratio» (CIR): 149.86% (Jun 2024), improved from 157.72% (Jun 2023) - moving the same direction as BOPO, for the first time in this blog's coverage.
Not available in this filing: any footnote-level detail (bare, unaudited quarterly publication), a segment or loan-type breakdown at the granularity the FY2023 annual report provided, and transacting-user or merchant counts specific to the Grab-integration channel driving this quarter's deposit growth.
Beyond the Usual
The funding gap is narrowing through real deposit growth, not a slowdown in lending
Total deposits grew 7.8% quarter-on-quarter (Rp921,706 million to Rp993,983 million) while gross loans grew even faster (28.1% quarter-on-quarter), so the loan-to-deposit ratio's improvement from 515.13% to 376.29% happened even as both sides of the ratio grew - it's driven specifically by CASA» deposits growing 264% year-on-year via the new Grab-app integration, not by lending pulling back. This is a healthier way to close a funding gap than either a lending slowdown or another capital injection, but 376% is still far above what any conventional bank would consider a sustainable loan-to-deposit ratio, and the trend needs several more quarters of confirmation before it's a resolved issue rather than one good quarter.
A fourth consecutive shareholder capital injection, this time explicitly tied to expansion, not a funding shortfall
Superbank's own July 26, 2024 release states shareholders Grab, Singtel, and KakaoBank contributed a further Rp1.2 trillion in H1 2024, explicitly "to support future business expansion" rather than to plug a deposit gap - a different stated purpose than the Q1 2024 capital injection, which landed the same quarter deposits had just fallen 34.5%. The balance sheet confirms the mechanics: the "Dana setoran modal" (pending capital deposit) balance of Rp1,000,965 million recorded at March 2024 shows as zero at June 2024, meaning it was formally converted into issued paid-in capital and additional paid-in capital during the quarter, alongside the fresh Rp1.2 trillion. This is the fourth capital contribution from shareholders recorded across three consecutive posts on this blog - a consistent pattern worth continuing to track as the bank works toward standing on its own funding.
Two consecutive quarters of improving cost-efficiency ratios, after two quarters of worsening ones
BOPO» and Cost-to-Income both improved year-on-year for the first time in this blog's coverage this quarter, reversing the direction flagged in both the FY2023 and Q1 2024 posts. The improvement is real but still leaves both ratios far above 100% - a bank whose operating expenses still run at roughly 1.5-1.7x its operating income - so this is evidence the launch-year cost spike flagged in the FY2023 post is beginning to level off relative to revenue, not evidence the bank has reached sustainable unit economics.
Target Valuation Range
No numeric valuation range is computable for Superbank - there is no independently traded equity or debt for this entity to value.
Superbank remains wholly owned by its consortium of shareholders (Emtek, Grab, Singtel, KakaoBank, and smaller holders), with no public listing of any kind. As in the FY2023 and Q1 2024 posts, Grab (Nasdaq: GRAB) and Singtel (SGX-listed) both trade publicly, but neither price reflects this one banking subsidiary's standalone economics, so no peer-multiple or DCF exercise is attempted here.
A bank that fixes a self-created funding problem in one quarter through real deposit growth, while its net loss keeps widening in absolute terms, is a business getting better and worse at the same time - and the next few quarters, not this one, will show which of those two trends actually wins out.
PT Super Bank Indonesia's quarterly published financial statement ("Laporan Posisi Keuangan Triwulanan"), bank-only/individual basis, unaudited, for the six-month period ended June 30, 2024, signed by the bank's board of directors in Jakarta on July 31, 2024, per Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK) bank transparency and publication regulations (POJK No. 37/POJK.03/2019); and the bank's own press release dated July 26, 2024.