PETALING JAYA, 21 FEBRUARY, 2012: Maybank Investment Bank Bhd is talking with several prospective companies to float their shares on the local bourse, its chief executive officer Tengku Zafrul Tengku Aziz said today.

He said the investment bank was involved in the upcoming initial public offering (IPO) exercise for Felda Global Ventures Holdings, Gas Malaysia and Integrated Healthcare Holdings.

"Another three to five companies are in the pipeline. These are big companies," he told reporters after the launch of the investment bank's mobile trading application.

Last year, Maybank Investment Bank arranged for four big IPOs involving MSM Malaysia Holdings, Eversendai Corp, Bumi Armada and Pavilion REIT.

"We are quite bullish about the market's outlook (regionally) even though the past few months have been quite challenging. We expect the market to gain its momentum in the next three to six months," Tengku Zafrul said.

Meanwhile, Wong Chew Hann, Director, Head of Research, Equity Markets, said the local bourse and its regional peers are experiencing liquidity-driven rally, but not the start of a bull-run, especially with lots of funds flowing into the Asian region.

However, the bank was maintaining its modest year-end target for FBM KLCI at 1,500 points, she said.

Tengku Zafrul concurred, saying the growth stories are still in Asia.

"We are bullish on Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines but we are neutral on Malaysia," he said.

On its first mobile trading application for iPhone and iPad, Tengku Zafrul said the application features a simple navigation system which offers important information on market summaries, indices and top 10 lists of performing and non-performing stocks.

"We are bullish on the prospects for this new application as about 20 to 30 per cent of our stockbroking clients are already trading via the internet," he added.


- Bernama