Malaysia

Bank Simpanan Nasional expects its wealth management division to contribute up to 15 per cent of the bank's revenue next year.

Maybank Group has unveiled a new corporate identity for Kim Eng and announced a new management line-up.

SBI Investment Co. will act as the Investment Management Advisor to RHB Private Equity Fund Management Ltd in establishing the Asia CleanTech Fund.

Crescent Wealth is targeting investments from Malaysia, which is home to the world's second-largest Islamic funds market with about US$5 billion under management.

OSK Investment Bank Bhd will bring its expertise in the regional investment banking business and small and mid-cap companies in a merger with RHB Banking Group.

Bank Muamalat  has launched the Islamic Dual Currency Investment, which will be initially offered in the Malaysian Ringgit, Euro and US Dollars to wholesale customers, reports Bernama News.

Public Bank launched three news funds, namely PB Asia Emerging Growth Fund, PB Bond Fund and PB Sukuk Fund. It is managed by its wholly owned subsidiary, Public Mutual. Public Mutual's Chief Executive Officer Yeoh Kim Hong, said the growth prospects for Asia were supported by resilient consumption expenditure amid sustained income levels, rising urbanisation rates and favourable demographic trends. PB Asia Emerging is an equity fund which will seek to achieve capital growth over the medium- to long-term period by investing primarily in stocks of emerging small- to medium-sized companies in domestic and regional markets. PB Bond provides annual income through investments in fixed income securities and money market instruments while PB Sukuk will invest in sukuk and Islamic money market instruments. Yeoh said PB Asia Emerging would offer investors the opportunity to invest in companies with promising growth prospect, which may include foreign markets such as South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore and other permitted markets. PB Bond would allow investors access to the bond market, usually inaccessible to the average investors being a market mainly for institutional investors where the standard transaction is RM5 million per lot while PB Sukuk would allow investors access to the sukuk market. The initial issue price of PB Asia Emerging is 25 sen per unit while PB Bond and PB Sukuk prices are both RM1 per unit during the 21-day initial offer period starting tomorrow until Sept 26, 2011.

Maybank plans to expand its investment banking business in Southeast Asia after the segment registered a 49% surge in fee-based income to RM292mil.

Affin Fund Management launched an open-ended fund with an approved size of 800 million units.

J.P. Morgan has appointed Steve Clayton as Managing Director and Senior Country Officer for Malaysia.

Bank Simpanan Nasional would assign more personnel to handle  its wealth management products and services from 96 now to 350 by year-end.

RHB Capital posted an 8 per cent increase in pre-tax profit to RM511.6 million for the first quarter of 2011, ending March 31. The company registered a profit of RM474.2 million in the previous corresponding quarter.

Hong Leong expects its takaful unit to make a gross contribution of RM100 million for the financial year ending June 30, 2011.

Public Mutual declared distributions for five funds for the financial year ending April 30, 2011.

The Malaysian government is studying an easy loan scheme to enable the lower income group to invest in the Amanah unit trust funds, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak said.

ASM Investment Services Bhd aims to attract one million investors through salary deductions this year with its "Thrift Savings Plan". ASM Investment presently has 100,000 investors with a total investment of about 800 million units.