IslamicFinance.de

#Malaysia Building Society's (MBSB) move to strengthen its presence in Islamic banking is in line with majority shareholder Employees Provident Fund’s (EPF) endeavour. MBSB president Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman said being a prominent Islamic player would help the firm’s growth plan. MBSB aspires to graduate from a non-lender into a full-fledged Islamic bank to increase its competitiveness. For the first six months ended June, MBSB’s net profit dropped 53.4% to RM97.8 million, despite an 11.6% jump in revenue to RM1.6 billion. The first-half results were below estimates, with operating income declining 1.8% as management continued to focus on corporate loans portfolio in place of the higher-yielding personal financing portfolio.

In the possible merger between Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) and RHB Capital Bhd (RHBCap), MBSB president and chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman said MBSB is capable of taking over RHB Islamic. MBSB itself has more than RM30 billion in assets a shareholders' fund of more than RM2 billion and a market capitalisation of RM5 billion on Bursa Malaysia. One option for MBSB is therefore to take over RHB Islamic's RM4 billion assets. Employees Provident Fund (EPF) chief executive officer Datuk Shahril Ridza Ridzuan had said last month that it will let RHBCap and MBSB decide on possible merger plans. The EPF holds a 44.84 per cent stake in RHBCap and 65.5 per cent share in MBSB. Meanwhile, MBSB chairman Tan Sri Abdul Halim Ali said the board of directors is unaware of any plans, is not in talks and has not received any proposals by the shareholders to merge with RHBCap.