OUM
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November 12, 2009 20:08 PM

STMB To Restructure Its Indonesia Unit

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 12 (Bernama) -- Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd is seeking for a local Indonesian financial institution interested in taking part in the equity of its Indonesia takaful company.

Group managing director, Datuk Hassan Kamil, said the group was currently in discussions with its shareholders to restructure its holding company PT Syarikat Takaful Indonesia over the next 12 months.

STMB currently holds 56 per cent equity in PT Syarikat Takaful Indonesia.

"We are looking at restructuring the company in Indonesia and we are in the mid of negotiations with shareholders on how we can restructure it," he told reporters after STMB's annual general meeting here Thursday.

PT Syarikat Takaful Indonesia currently owns the majority stake in two companies operating in Indonesia, namely PT Asuransi Takaful Keluarga (assurance) and PT Asuransi Takaful Umum (general takaful).

Following the restructure, Hassan said STMB hoped to retain the two operating companies.

STMB already has a direct equity of 43 per cent in Keluarga.

With the restructuring, there will be some interest by other parties to take equity in the restructured company.

"We are looking at local Indonesian banks interested to participate.

"In Indonesia, if we have a bank, we can leverage on their branches to distribute products of our operating companies," he said.

With this in place, he said the company will also be able to tap on their customer base to cross sell its takaful products through the banks.

"This will be the most efficient way to reach out to all parts of Indonesia because to set up branches in Indonesia can be quite costly due to the geographic spread of the country," Hassan said.

The group, which recorded a pre-tax profit of RM48.9 million for financial year ended June 30, 2009 from the RM33.9 million recorded in previous year, aims to maintain the same performance for the current year, he said.

"If the market showed positive trend, we hope to maintain and achieve the target we set for the next financial year," he added.

At the company level, it posted an increase of six per cent in pre-tax profit from RM42.7 million to RM45.3 million.

Assets meanwhile rose by 7.8 per cent to RM4.4 billion compared to RM4 billion the previous year.

-- BERNAMA

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