RHB Research maintains Buy on Maybank, FV RM10.95

KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Research is maintaining its Buy call on Malayan Banking (Maybank) with a fair value of RM10.95, which is 15 times CY 2013 earnings per share (EPS).
It
said on Thursday there is no change to its earnings forecasts for now.
Maybank is expected to release first quarter 2013 results sometime next
week.
“The impending departure (Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar
as its president and CEO following his appointment to the Cabinet) of
does not change our view of Maybank being an excellent proxy to Economic Transformation Programme activities.
“Maybank
would benefit from the pick-up in business lending activities now that
the General Election overhang has been lifted. Maintain Buy call,” it
said.
RHB Research in the near-term, it believes Maybank already
has in place a seasoned and experienced management team to cope with the
departure and handle the daily operations.
It added 2013 earnings remains well supported by the group's existing loan and capital market pipelines.
“Beyond
that, much would depend on the direction set by the successor, although
we think this may just involve some fine-tuning given that the building
blocks are already in place,” said the research house.