Maybank Islamic Denies Talks Of Merger With Bank Islam

KUALA LUMPUR: Maybank Islamic Bhd has dimissed speculations that it is in talks with Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd over a potential merger and acqusition (M&A).

Its chief executive officer Muzaffar Hisham said the proposed merger of three local financial institutions to create a mega Islamic bank has not prompted Maybank Islamic, the region’s largest Islamic banking institution, to rush into M&A for expansion.

“We continue to seek the best option to enhance value and maintain our market leadership. All options are on the table, including M&A.

“Our emphasis has always been not on the size, but on the value of the bank… that has always been our objective,” he said on the sidelines of the Global Islamic Finance Forum 2014, here, yesterday.

Muzaffar said Maybank Islamic will continue to focus on its key objective, namely humanising financial services, which has been the driver of the bank’s outstanding track record over the last three to four years.

“Gaining market share in asset growth is actually straight forward, the challenge is in maintaining value and sustaining it. If we can grow bigger and faster but it doesn’t come with value and doesn’t give return to the stakeholders and customers, then it would not be sustainable.

“We need to look at things in the long term. We look at what is the best possible option and recommend it to the board and shareholders,” he said.

Meanwhile, Muzaffar said Maybank Islamic is optimistic of maintaining its growth momentum in the second half of the year after recording an encouraging performance in the first half.

He said for the first six months ended June 30, its revenue grew by an average of 40 per cent year-on-year. -NST

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