Tengku Zafrul's game plan

Tengku Zafrul.

THE biggest nightmare for any banking chief executive is to go into a merger only to find the capital markets roiling into uncertainty and the real economy wobbling a few months down the road.

One person who probably can testify to this is Tan Sri Abdul Rashid Hussain, one of Malaysia’s brightest investment bankers who had helmed the merger of DCB Bank Bhd and Kwong Yik Bank in November 1996. That merger was the most expensive banking exercise transacted at a price-to-book value of 3.2 times. The merged entity became what is known today as the RHB banking group.