Friday, December 23, 2011

RAM Ratings reaffirms Maybank IB's AAA/P1 ratings

Larger Smaller Reset KUALA LUMPUR (Dec 23): RAM Ratings has reaffirmed Maybank Investment Bank Bhd's (Maybank IB) respective long- and short-term financial institution ratings at AAA and P1.

It said on Friday that the long-term rating had a stable outlook.

Maybank IB is the main investment-banking arm of the MALAYAN BANKING BHD [] universal-banking group (Maybank).

RSM Ratings said Maybank IB's ratings mirrored its parent's AAA/Stable/P1 ratings from RAM Ratings.

Maybank is Malaysia's largest financial-services group that commands the lion's share of loans and deposits in the domestic banking system, it said.

The rating agency said Maybank IB was expected to gradually derive synergistic benefits from Maybank's recent acquisition of Kim Eng Holdings Limited (Kim Eng) - a Singapore-based regional securities and investment-banking group.

'Given Kim Eng's established presence in several markets in ASEAN, Maybank IB stands to gain access to a wider distribution network, along with a regional platform to expand its investment-banking services.

'Maybank IB is a key component of the Group's Global Wholesale Banking strategy that targets the cross-selling of innovative products and services among its corporate/commercial clients,' it said.

RAM Ratings said Maybank would readily extend its support to Maybank IB should the need arise.

It also said Maybank IB's position in the domestic investment-banking arena strengthened year-on-year in the first 8 months of 2011.

The bank came in second in the league table for the domestic debt-capital market, with 26.1% of total deals by value; this represents an improvement over its fourth position last year, it said.

Lifted by higher corporate-advisory fees, the bank achieved respective pre-tax profits of RM153.8 million and RM85.1 million for FYE 30 June 2011 and the 3 months ended 30 September 2011, it said.

'As an investment bank, however, Maybank IB's financial performance is susceptible to the vagaries of the capital markets.

'On a separate note, the Bank is entirely supported by tier-1 capital, which provides the strongest loss-absorption capacity; its tier-1 risk-weighted capital-adequacy ratio stood at a strong 22.6% as at end-September 2011,' it said.

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