Sarawak to proceed with Affin Bank shares’ S&P agreement with LTAT after regulatory approvals

KUCHING (July 19): The Sarawak government and the Armed Forces Fund Board (LTAT) will proceed with a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) of shares in Affin Bank upon securing the necessary regulatory approvals, said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.

“We believe that Affin Bank can have access to the network under the wider Sarawak where it can work together and leverage on its investment banking and treasury capabilities,” he said at the signing ceremony of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the state government and LTAT at Menara Affin in Kuala Lumpur today.

Abang Johari said Affin Bank will have the opportunity to participate and expand its environmental, social, and governance (ESG) portfolio as the state has several green initiatives in the pipeline, while expanding its retail customer base as there are untapped potentials in the retail market in Sarawak.

“Opportunities to work with Affin Bank are wide, amongst others in areas of promoting cashless payments and adoption of digital banking in Sarawak.

“Additionally, Affin Bank can explore collaborations to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in providing access to affordable financing, whilst increasing literacy and leveraging on Affin Bank’s networking platform.

“We believe this will have an added impact to Sarawak’s development as this would provide a financial platform to boost the economy further through the development of SMEs and entrepreneurship programmes and to serve Sarawak in general, ” he said.

Yesterday, state media organisations were initially invited by the Sarawak Public Communications Unit (Ukas) to a signing ceremony in regard to the ‘acquisition of shares’, however this was subsequently changed to the signing of an MoU.

The Edge reported earlier that the MoU is to “explore strategic investments between the two parties”.

According to the financial news organisation, the MoU comes as both parties delay the signing of a SPA due to some technical hitches.

Quoting sources, The Edge said the SPA signing was postponed as the Sarawak government looked to “clarify some conditions” that Bank Negara Malaysia had attached to the deal.

The planned SPA between Sarawak and LTAT would have formalised the state’s plan to increase its stake in the lender to around 30 per cent from 4.8 per cent currently, The Edge reported.