DRB-Hicom to sell 30% Bank Muamalat stake? (1619)

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's auto-to-insurance conglomerate DRB-Hicom plans
to sell 30 percent of its 70 percent stake in partly state-owned
Islamic lender Bank Muamalat Malaysia, a source with knowledge of the
deal said on Thursday.

Malaysia's central bank last month gave
the country's ninth-largest Islamic bank, AFFIN Holdings, permission to
enter talks with DRB-Hicom, which has been told by the central bank to
reduce its stake to a maximum of 40 percent.

DRB-Hicom bought
its 70 percent stake in Bank Muamalat from Bukhary Capital in 2008. The
government's investment holding arm Khazanah Nasional owns the other 30
per cent.

"The matter is in Bank Negara's (Malaysia's central
bank) hands now," the source told Reuters, adding that a deal should be
completed by the end of the year.

DRB-Hicom, controlled by
billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary, had tried to reduce its stake in
Bank Muamalat with a sale to Bank Islam Malaysia last year and
previously to Bahrain-based Islamic lender Al Baraka Banking Group.

Should the deal go through, Affin would emerge as Malaysia's fourth-largest Islamic lender by assets.

REUTERS