Hong Leong Investment Bank Bhd said Maybank's potential asset sales would also help raise funds to finance the group's capital requirement. Today, Hong Leong said: “We are positive on the development, as this will enable Maybank to maximise the use of capital in its subsidiary, though contribution from this divestment is minimal. We also opine that this will further streamline its Indonesian operations that have been hit by asset quality issues for several years.”According to Hong Leong, Maybank's investment cost in WOM Finance amounted to IDR781 billion. “Based on selling price of IDR 673.77 billion, Maybank is expected to incur a loss on the divestment exercise. However, taking into consideration the book value difference, we estimate that Maybank will gain circa IDR60 billion (or about RM2 million), a marginal gain to our FY2017 earnings forecast,” Hong Leong said.

Source: The Edge Markets January 13, 2017 03:40 UTC