High-level talks seal mega bank deal

THE proposed mega bank merger between CIMB Holdings Group Bhd, RHB Capital Bhd (RHB Cap)and Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) is pretty much a done deal, at least going by industry talk and a new media report.

On Friday, Singapore Business Times reported that owing to high-level talks between the leaders of Malaysia and Abu Dhabi, the key party in the merger, namely Aabar Investment, which is the second largest shareholder of RHB Cap with a 21.22% stake, has verbally agreed to vote in favour of the bank merger.