Nazir gets vote of confidence from CIMB shareholders

KUALA LUMPUR: Shareholders of CIMB Group Holdings Bhd voted in favour of Datuk Seri Nazir Razak’s re-election at its AGM yesterday despite the ongoing review of banking activities related to his personal account after he had admitted to having had funds channelled through him for the 13th general elections.
“This AGM was also an AGM where my chairmanship was put out for shareholders to vote and I’m pleased to say that the shareholders voted in favour of me remaining as chairman. It’s been a long day for me but I think I’ve done the right things and I think the shareholders have responded well,” he told reporters after the AGM yesterday.
Nazir surprised the board of directors and shareholders yesterday when he announced his decision to take a leave of absence from his positions as CIMB Group chairman and CIMB Bank Bhd director.
He said the group is unlikely to appoint an interim chairman as the review will only take a few weeks. External audit firm Messrs Ernst & Young will assist with the review.
On whether the central bank is involved in the board’s decision, Nazir said that it is in constant communication with the regulator on all matters.
“Certainly this issue is something that will interest BNM (Bank Negara Malaysia) but they are a supervisory regulator, they monitor us and they would expect us to handle this in the right way. And if we handle it in the right way, there’s no reason for them to need to do anything,” he said.
On how these developments would affect investor confidence, Nazir said its actions show that it is maintaining the best governance standards, which is what investors want to see.
“It is questionable whether as a non- executive director, non-executive chairman, I should go on leave because actually I’m not in the office every day anyway. But I think it is best to do more if you can. I think investors will appreciate that this is the highest standards of corporate governance that is being applied in the case of CIMB so I think it will be good for investors or investor perception of CIMB,” he added.
Meanwhile, CIMB Group Holdings group CEO Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said the group has not seen any increase in non-performing loans despite the slower economic growth.
“In terms of loan growth yes, we are seeing moderation and we expect this to happen in line with the slower growth in the economy. This is across the region ... our projection for group loan growth is around 10%,” he said.
The group is seeking partnerships for its non-life insurance distribution business and negotiations are ongoing with several parties, including a Japanese entity. Tengku Zafrul said it is evaluating the terms and a decision will be made soon.
The group is also in preliminary stages of discussions with interested parties for partnerships within its stockbroking business.

In terms of cutting cost, Tengku Zafrul said the group has no plans for any voluntary separation scheme but will continue looking at areas to improve productivity and efficiency.