Social Investment
Fresh funds to drive Takaful Malaysia | Fresh funds to drive Takaful Malaysia |
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| Monday, 05 May 2008 | |
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The emergence of a Middle Eastern shareholder in composite Islamic insurer Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd (Takaful Malaysia) would give the local insurer more financial clout to expand globally and even embark on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) to stay ahead in the highly competitive domestic market. Moreover, Malaysia's second-largest syariah-compliant insurance company would be able to tap its new partner's links with global infrastructure companies and cross-sell its general policies. "Once we get the capital and we have new partners as our shareholders, it (M&A) is possible. We hope to cross-sell some of our products to cover some of the infrastructure projects that they are embarking on both in Malaysia and overseas," Takaful Malaysia's Group Managing Director Datuk Hassan Kamil tells The Edge . To recap, Takaful Malaysia told the exchange last year that it had obtained Bank Negara Malaysia's approval to begin talks with two foreign institutional investors - Islamic Arab Insurance Co. P.J.S.C. (SALAMA) and Abu Dhabi-Kuwait-Malaysia Strategic Investment Corp - with the view to disposing of up to 49% in the insurer to one of the Middle East companies. The pricing of the new shareholder's entry is not known but it will certainly enlarge the local firm's shareholders; equity. As at June 30, 2007, Takaful Malaysia had a shareholders' base of RM335.3 million and market capitalisation of about RM221 million. Read the full article in The Edge . |
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