PETALING JAYA: Malayan Banking Bhd
(Maybank), which is focusing efforts on the bank’s M25+ strategy rolled out in October 2022 to grow market share, remains a defensive play on decent dividend yield amid the uncertainty over interest-rate policy and the lack of catalysts to push share price higher.
Analysts and fund managers who attended Maybank’s virtual investor day last Friday were cautiously optimistic as it shared details on three of the seven pillars of the M25+ strategy – wealth management, mid-market segment and global market foreign-exchange (forex) sales – which the bank considers as key areas for growing its Asean footprint.
Hong Leong Investment Bank Research, which maintained a “hold” call on the stock with a target price of RM10.70, advocated investors to nibble on share price weakness for the dividend yield, citing a balanced risk-reward profile amid the lack of catalysts to drive share price higher.
It added that the bank emphasised digitalisation, cross-border synergies, and fee income scalability.
TA Securities said the bank’s push into Islamic wealth and syariah-compliant offerings could be a meaningful differentiator as it also leverages on group-wide infrastructure to broaden product offerings as well as accelerate value creation in the increasingly competitive regional wealth management market, where many other players have stepped up their game.
While it views Maybank’s approach as aligned to key Asean structural trends such as rising affluence, mid-market business expansion and growing regional trade flows, it believes the goal to capture 80% of Malaysia’s mid-market segment to be ambitious as other banks have also focused on Penang, Johor and Sarawak.
“On a more positive note, we are optimistic about Maybank’s forex strategy under global markets, although the forex business remains largely driven by flows and sensitive to retail and business sentiment, which could be impacted by ongoing macroeconomic volatility,” it added.
TA Securities maintained a “buy” call on the bank with an unchanged target price of RM11.40 per share.
RHB Research, which kept a “buy” call with an unchanged target price of RM10.90 implying a 5.7% dividend yield for the financial year ending Dec 31, 2025, said Maybank expects forex sales to come from cross-selling opportunities and solutions targeting specific markets, leveraging its strong presence in Malaysia and Singapore.
It noted that while Maybank’s mid-market segment remains a relatively small portion of the loan book for 2025, the growth momentum has been positive, without sacrificing asset quality.
