Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Maybank sees deals up, eyes new mkts

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's Maybank expects to see a 50 percent rise in the value of its investment banking deals this year as the stable global economy galvanises fund-raising activities, a senior official said.

Maybank, Malaysia's largest listed firm, said a healthy flow of initial public offerings and bond issuance would contribute to a strong rise in its equity and debt capital market pipeline from $3.01 billion in 2009.

"We'll see at least 50 percent growth value wise," Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz said in an interview.

"We have seen positive growth in both the debt capital market and equity capital market. So I think going forward, you will see the similar pattern, we believe that both the debt capital market and the equity capital market will show positive growth in the next six months."

Maybank Investment's recent deals include shopping mall operator CapitaMalls Malaysia Trust's $266 million IPO and property developer Sunway REIT $455 million listing exercise.

The investment banking arm of Maybank is also advising on the upcoming listing of shipping firm MISC's heavy engineering arm which is expected to raise over $300 million.

Maybank Investment handled $713 million in equity deals in the year to July 26, making it No. 6 in terms of Southeast Asian bookrunners, behind top-ranked Malaysian bank CIMB Group and JP Morgan, according to Thomson Reuters data.

The bank said it arranged 7.25 billion ringgit of debt deals and 2.36 billion ringgit of equity transactions last year.

Zafrul said prospects for next year were less clear but the investment bank planned to enter the Indonesia and Singapore markets by mid-2011 and was open to taking an equity stake to expand its regional footprint there.

"We are looking at all possible options," said Zafrul who used to head Citi's Malaysian investment banking business. "There are three options - to find a partner, to start from scratch, or to do a joint venture."

He said Maybank Investment had yet to identify potential partners in these markets.

He said the bank planned to boost its staff strength of 580 to keep pace with business growth but did not give projections.

"We are looking at other capabilities such as structured products, futures - these are areas which we have not gone into but plan to go into."

Maybank is due to report its fourth quarter earnings in August. Twenty-two analysts tracked by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S expect it to post a net profit of 3.7 billion ringgit ($1.16 billion) for the full year, surpassing its best ever full-year net profit of 3.18 billion ringgit reported in fiscal 2007.

In May, the bank posted a January-March net profit of 1.03 billion ringgit, its best-ever quarterly performance.

Shares of Maybank, which has a market value of $17 billion, are up 12.24 percent so far this year, outperforming the 6.2 percent gain in the broader market index but lagging top dealmaker CIMB's 16.8 percent increase. - Reuters




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