Malaysia’s second-biggest bank based on assets, the CIMB Group Holdings, is trying to clinch a merger deal with domestic competitors, involving and expecting 3 banks to finalize the merged enterprise structure in early 2015.
The merger deal involves domestic rival RHB Capital Bhd, including a joint of their respective Islamic banking setups with the Malaysia Building Society Bhd, setting up a deal, which will mark the merger as the biggest Malaysian bank based on assets, surpassing the Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank).
The parties involved are currently in in-depth discussions, and in the middle of a due diligence procedure, according to CIMB acting group CEO Zafrul Aziz. The acting chief executive also pointed out the company’s expectations to arrive at an agreement towards 2015’s first quarter.
However, the proposal’s fate hinges Aabar Investments, the Abu Dhabi-based key shareholder that own 21% of RHB as it hopes for higher price of its shares.
Also the fifth-biggest bank in Southeast Asia by assets, CIMB reported a 16% drop in its net profit for the third quarter, which was hurt by higher loan damages in the company’s Indonesian operations (the CIMB Niaga).
The company’s net profit for the quarter fell to 265.35 million dollars or 890M ringgit, compared to the 1.06B ringgit from last year’s same quarter. Revenue was slightly higher year-every-year, now at 3.53B ringgit.
CIMB’s sixth consecutive quarter results of year-every-year basis, marks a drop, which was hurt by fewer huge IPOs within the period as well as the slower growth of loans. Additionally, the results of Maybank will be released on November 27.
The firm’s Indonesian operations are expected to be hard continuously by tight liquidity and asset quality within the Indonesian banking systems in the future term, according to Zafrul.