Maybank brokerage aims to top Asean by 2015

The announcement of the goal comes after Maybank – Malaysia’s largest lender – took over Kim Eng Holdings of Singapore through subsidiary Mayban IB Holdings. Thus Maybank Group replaced Kim Eng as MBKET’s major shareholder. MBKET was formerly named Kim Eng Securities (Thailand).
MBKET chief executive officer Montree Sornpaisarn said the firm had benefited from Maybank’s investment-banking expertise in such areas as equity capital markets, debt capital markets, mergers and acquisitions, strategic advisory services, and Asean exchange linkage.
“Investors are able to make more cross-border investment” with Maybank’s footprints in many markets including Malaysia, Singa-pore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines, Montree said.
Shortly after Maybank’s acquisition, “Fitch Ratings adjusted our credit rating two notches from A to AA- on the back of the bank’s support,” he said.
“The group is bigger and there exist wider opportunities,” he said. MBKET has set a double-digit growth target for its investment banking business but declines to disclose the exact figure.
Currently, about 85-88 per cent the revenue of MBKET – which |has 44 local branches – comes |from commissions on retail brokerage business, 4-5 per cent from interest income and dividends, and 2-3 per cent from investment banking.
Its brokerage market share is about 11.8 per cent from the beginning of this year to now. This year’s target is 13 per cent.
In the future, other businesses, aside from retail brokerage, will likely contribute more, Montree said.
Maybank Kim Eng in Thailand will try to balance its revenue structure by growing other types of revenue, said Judd Kinne, a director of MBKET.
“That will be the challenge in Thailand,” he said, adding that the opportunity existed in cross-border transactions for advisory services, where the parent Maybank investment bank and its network in other countries could come for assistance.
Montree noted that opportu-nities existed for investment-banking business such as initial public offerings and cross-border transactions through Maybank’s network, which is strong in that |area.
“We also prepare to sell May-bank services such as sukuk [sharia-compliant] bonds and Islamic bank solutions,” he said.
Currently, MBKET extends margin loans of about Bt7 billion to Bt8 billion, up from the previous figure of no more than Bt5 |billion.
“Maybank supports us to use funds to boost business and stands ready to provide financial assistance if we need it,” Montree said.