Saturday 15 September 2012

Bank Islam Malaysia’s expansion plan into Indonesia hits a snag


Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd’s (BIMB) plan to acquire shares in PT Bank Muamalat Indonesia (PT Muamalat) has hit a snag as its proposal has been put on hold by the Indonesian party.

The proposal to acquire a stake between 30% and 40% in PT Muamalat was first reported by a business daily in February. “Though we have tried twice and failed, we are not going to give up,” BIMB managing director Datuk Seri Zukri Samat told reporters after the launch of its BIMB Dana Al-Fakhim fund in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

He cited no reason for the move by the Indonesian party, but said that BIMB is “still interested in Indonesia”. BIMB’s first-half ended June 30, 2012 (1HFY12), results showed net profit increased by 6.15% to RM198.56 million from RM187.05 in the previous corresponding period. The company’s revenue grew 9.9% to RM610.42 million from RM555.23 million a year ago.

Its year-on-year (YoY) customer deposits grew 19.4% or RM4.6 billion to reach RM28.7 billion, while the company’s net financing grew RM2.2 billion or an annualised growth of 32% to reach RM16.4 billion. Its investment arm, BIMB Investment Management Bhd (BIMB Invest), yesterday launched a money market fund — BIMB Dana Al-Fakhim — with an initial size of RM100 million. BIMB Invest’s asset under management (AUM) stood at RM1.5 billion as of yesterday, according to its chief executive officer (CEO) Nazaruddin Othman.

In his speech earlier, Zukri said BIMB Invest is targeting to become one of the providers for the recently launched private retirement scheme by 2015. He said one of the criteria is that the scheme provider must have a minimum AUM of RM1 billion for three consecutive years.

BIMB Dana Al-Fakhim targets the huge potential that exists in the Malaysian total banking system’s current deposit of over RM1.3 trillion (as at June 2012), apart from complementing BIMB Invest's existing portfolio of funds that currently include BIMB i Growth, BIMB Dana Al-Munsif, BIMB Dana Al-Falah and BIMB i Dividend Fund.

The total industry net asset value of these funds stood at RM31.4 billion. Zukri said the demand for Shariah-compliant funds grew more than 15% YoY over the last three years.


(The Malaysian Reserve / 14 Sep 2012)

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Alfalah Consulting - Kuala Lumpur: www.alfalahconsulting.com
Islamic Investment Malaysia: www.islamic-invest-malaysia.com

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