CIMB is Tops

The Star - 03 Jan 2008

PETALING JAYA: The CIMB group topped the league table as the biggest corporate dealmaker in Malaysia for 2007, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.

The country’s top investment adviser increased its domestic market share on all fronts, from helping local companies to selling around RM35bil worth of bonds last year.

The amount comprised RM19.1bil worth of domestic bonds and RM15.88bil worth of Islamic papers.

That gave the bank a 35% share in the conventional debt market and 42% share in the Islamic bonds market.

Its nearest rival, AmInvestment Bank Bhd, sold a combined RM10bil worth of Islamic and conventional debt papers in 2007, chalking an average market share of 11%.

In the initial public offering market, CIMB helped companies raise RM1.28bil from listing on Bursa Malaysia, or slightly more than half of the total volume of RM2.4bil recorded in 2007.

CIMB’s involvement in mega merger and acquisition (M&As) deals last year boosted the group’s ranking in the region.

The firm, headed by chief executive officer Datuk Nazir Razak, climbed from seventh to second place behind JP Morgan in the South- East Asian market for 2007, with M&A arrangements worth US$21.66bil (RM71.7bil).

CIMB also participated in 33 deals in China and Hong Kong valued at US$6.2bil (RM20.5bil) during the year.

Another local banker, RHB Investment Bank Bhd, jumped to seventh place in the South-East Asia region ranking, with total deals amounting to US$14.5bil (RM48bil).

The biggest advisory arrangement for CIMB during the year was the US$11.9bil (RM39.3bil) takeover of Maxis Communications Bhd in May by Binariang GSM Sdn Bhd.

The privatisation exercise went on to become the biggest announced M&A exercise in South-East Asia and third largest in Asia Pacific (excluding Japan) in 2007.

The largest M&A deal in the region during the year was the US$15.1bil takeover of Australia’s Coles Group.

During the year, the Asia Pacific region saw US$780bil worth of deals announced, or 16% higher compared with 2006.