MAA sees very active trade, advances

KUALA LUMPUR: MAA HOLDINGS BHD []’s share price, which was recently battered over the perceived cheap sale of its insurer, saw heavy trading on Wednesday, June 29.

At 4.14pm, it was up 5.5 sen to 75.5 sen with 43.11 million shares done as traders picked up the hammered down stock. The number of shares transacted was about 14.16% of its paid-up of 304.35 million shares.

The FBM KLCI was up 1.74 points to 1,571.76. Turnover was 863.29 million shares valued at RM1.31 billion. There were 365 gainers, 362 losers and 317 stocks unchanged.

MAA has set a target of RM1 billion in gross contributions for its Takaful business under its five-year target. It would also focus on its unit trust business to grow the group.

To recap, the group recently signed a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Zurich Insurance Co Ltd to sell its insurance business.

The Edge FinancialDaily reported on June 27 the sale of the insurance business for RM344 million, which was 1.35 times book value, was a fair deal as it addressed the insurer's need for more capital as well as inflow of cash for the group.

In an exclusive interview, MAA chief excutive officer and managing director Muhammad Umar Swift said "I think it's a fair valuation, we wouldn't hope for more. You look (at) where the business is, the competition we're under, you would also have to factor in the CAR (capital adequacy ratio). Now it's being addressed by someone else and that changes, in our mind, the actual purchase price of the company."