Maybank says looking for banking opportunity in Thailand

25-Apr-2012 Intellasia | Reuters | 7:05 AM

Malaysia’s top lender Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) is exploring a bank business opportunity in Thailand but it is not in active talks about acquiring a stake in TMB bank Pcl, its chief executive said on Monday.

“We are not in any active discussion,” Maybank CEO Abdul Wahid Omar told reporters when asked if it planned to buy a stake in TMB.

He was in Bangkok to join with its brokerage unit Maybank Kim Eng Securities (Thailand) Pcl to announce the strategy of its investment banking business in Thailand.

Reuters cited sources as saying that ING was putting its 31 percent stake in TMB, Thailand’s seventh-largest lender, up for sale as the Dutch financial services group pushed ahead with Asian divestment.