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Maybank's sale of 5.1m BII shares won't have financial impact
Malaysia's KLCI falls more than 24pt in early trade
CIMB Research: Stay invested in Public Bank, TP RM18.70

Maybank's sale of 5.1m BII shares won't have financial impact

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 06:38 PM PDT

Published: Friday June 21, 2013 MYT 9:39:00 AM

KUALA LUMPUR: Alliance Research says Malayan Banking's (Maybank) sale of 5.1 million shares in PT Bank International Indonesia Tbk (BII) will not have a material financial impact on its earnings forecast.

The research house had on Friday maintained its Neutral recommendation on Maybank with an unchanged target price of RM10.54.

Maybank, had on Thursday announced the sale of the BII shares to an unnamed third party, reducing its shareholding to 88.3%.

In the meantime, Maybank was applying to Indonesia's Financial Services Authority for a further extension to comply with the requirement to pare down its stake in BII to 80%.

"Given that BII constituted less than 8% of the group's profit before tax for FY12 and Maybank has entered into a commercial arrangement with the unnamed third party that the economic exposure resulting from the disposal is being retained, we do not foresee material financial impact to our earnings forecasts post disposal," said Alliance Research.

Malaysia's KLCI falls more than 24pt in early trade

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 06:16 PM PDT

Published: Friday June 21, 2013 MYT 9:16:00 AM

KUALA LUMPUR: Selling pressure pushed Malaysia's blue chips lower in early trade on Friday, sending the FBM KLCI down more than 24 points, with banks among the biggest losers after the overnight fall on Wall Street.

At 9.03am, the KLCI was down 24.28 points to 1,738.06. Turnover was 64.52 million shares valued at RM46.27mil. Losers hammered gainers 327 to 18 while 78 counters were unchanged.

Reuters reported Asian stocks extended losses on Friday as the U.S. Federal Reserve's plan to scale back stimulus drove MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down another 0.6% after it hit a nine-month low on Thursday.

At Bursa Malaysia, UMW fell 34 sen to RM14.24, Petronas Gas 32 sen to RM20.32 while Tenaga lost 17 sen to RM8.15 and Sime Darby was down 15 sen to RM9.34.

Among the banks, Maybank lost 26 sen to RM10.10, HLFG 20 sen to RM13.90 and Public Bank 14 sen to RM16.82.

CIMB Research: Stay invested in Public Bank, TP RM18.70

Posted: 20 Jun 2013 05:50 PM PDT

Published: Friday June 21, 2013 MYT 8:51:00 AM

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Equities Research is maintaining its target price of RM18.70 for Public Bank and its advice is to stay invested in the banking group.

It cited on Friday the banking group's strong fundamentals, reflected by its best returns on equity (ROE), asset quality and operating efficiencies among Malaysian banks.

"Earnings catalysts would be the loan growth of 11%-12% and push for the growth in fee income, mainly from bancassurance and wealth management," it said.

CIMB Research said the targets for Public Bank in 2013 were a ROE of more than 20%; gross impaired loan ratio of less than 1% and cost-to-income ratio of less than 32% and loans/deposit growth of 11%-12%.

"We believe that the targets are achievable as it had attained these levels in FY12 and we do not expect any significant deterioration. Achieving these targets will enable Public Bank to maintain the best performance in these areas except for loan/deposit growth," it said. The research house said although Public Bank was one of the first movers in terms of regional expansion, its strategies were more focused compared to its peers.

"Its focus is only on Greater China and Indochina while it does not have plans to enter other Asean countries despite their proximities to Malaysia. In the longer-term, it aims to speed up the expansion in China but we think this will only materialise in three to five years when its Hong Kong unit achieves an asset size of US$6bil," it said.

Kredit: www.thestar.com.my

Khamis, 20 Jun 2013