K&N Kenanga confident of improved performance

KUALA LUMPUR: K&N Kenanga Holdings Bhd expects the local stock market to remain resilient and the group to register a better performance in the current financial year ending Dec 31, 2016 compared with last year.
"We will do better than last year for sure. All of our core businesses (such as) broking, investment banking, futures are doing fairly alright," group managing director Datuk Chay Wai Leong said after its EGM here yesterday.
He said the Malaysian stock market is resilient and does not see much of a drop as there is a lot of liquidity in the domestic market.
"It's not going to worry anyone but, for us as brokers, we worry about the volume. If there's not much volume then it will be difficult for us. As far as the stock market itself is concerned, it's going to be quite resilient," said Chay.
He added that the prospects for K&N Kenanga are not too bad amid the uncertainties in the world economy.
"We're one of the top three brokers here and, because of our size, we managed to stay above water. We have the critical mass."
Earlier at the EGM, shareholders approved its proposed merger, which consists of the proposed transfer of the assets and liabilities of K&N Kenanga to Kenanga Investment Bank Bhd (Kenanga IB), the proposed K&N Kenanga capital reduction and repayment as well as the proposed transfer of K&N Kenanga's listing status to Kenanga IB.
The proposed transfer will be undertaken to streamline the businesses of K&N Kenanga under Kenanga IB via the elimination of duplicate functions performed by the group, resulting in time and cost efficiency.
Upon completion of the internal reorganisation, Kenanga IB will become the primary operating entity of the group, hence allowing it to manage its resources more efficiently and to spearhead the group's future growth.
The proposed internal reorganisation is expected to be implemented and completed by the fourth quarter of this year. The listing of the new Kenanga IB shares is slated for November 2016.