Affin surges to highest since August

by **hlk** Fri 08 Jun 2012, 17:25

KUALA LUMPUR: Shares of Affin Holdings Bhd surged to RM3.38, the highest since August 2011 on speculation that Bank of East Asia (BEA) could be divesting its 23.5% stake in Affin.

At 11.47am, Affin was up 19 sen to RM3.27. There wee 5.50 million shares done at prices ranging from RM3.13 to RM3.38.

The call warrants Affin-CG added two sen to 15.5c and Affin-CF rose 6.5 sen to 13 sen.

Kenanga Investment Research had maintained its Outperform rating on Affin with an unchanged target price of RM4.30, based on 1.0 times FY13 price-to-book value, implying 11.7 times price-to-earnings ratio (PER) of FY13E.

"BEA is said to have explored options to retain capital, including the sale of its non-core assets according to a few reports. Any sales could include its 23.5% investment stake in Affin, in our view," said the research house.