RHB wants commercial bank in Indonesia

KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Capital Bhd, which expects to complete the transfer of its listing to RHB Bank by mid-July, is targeting a commercial bank in Indonesia to leverage on the country’s large population and gross domestic product.
“We already have investment banking and asset management in Indonesia, the big piece missing is a commercial bank,” managing director and CEO Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli told reporters after the group’s AGM here yesterday.
However, he said, no potential target has been identified yet.
“We’re open to expansion through inorganic means, but in the current environment, any mergers and acquisitions have to be at the right price and right time as well as linked back to our overall group’s strategy,” he added.
Meanwhile, Khairussaleh foresees industry loan growth moderating further this year as a reflection of economic growth.
“To us, loan growth per se is not the main focus especially in this challenging environment, but we’re focusing on asset quality and making sure we’ve sufficient capital to go through this,” he noted.
With the completion of a rights issue and an internal reorganisation, Khairussaleh said, the group will be one of the well-capitalised banks in the country.
On loan portfolio, he expects the mortgage and small and medium enterprise (SME) segment to continue delivering a good performance, while corporate loans will see slower growth.
“Basically, a lot of mortgage will come from the previous stocks of progressive loans, these are first-time house buyers. For SMEs, we still see positive growth, particularly from the way we’ve introduced a new business model internally,” Khairusalleh said.
Last year, RHB’s gross loans and financing grew 6.2% to RM151.4 billion.
Khairussaleh opined that Bank Negara Malaysia is unlikely to relax rules and regulations for housing loans following the appointment of a new governor, Datuk Muhammad Ibrahim.
“We see the new governor (doing) what’s right for the industry and economy. I think all those conditions at the moment will still be around,” he said.
RHB posted a net profit of RM1.51 billion in 2015, a 25.84% decline compared with RM2.04 billion in 2014, due to lower fee income and higher loan impairment charges.
At yesterday’s AGM, RHB announced the retirement of chairman Datuk Mohamed Khadar Merican and independent non-executive director Tan Sri Teo Chiang Liang.
“An application for the appointment of a new chairman has been submitted to Bank Negara and an announcement will be made upon Bank Negara’s approval,” Khairussaleh said.