Unicorn Malaysia eyes deals worth RM1b to triple profit

By Sumathi Wong
Unicorn International Islamic Bank Bhd (Unicorn Malaysia) hopes to secure deals worth up to US$300 million (RM1.06 billion) this year and is optimistic of at least tripling its current year’s profit.
"We are not going for billion-dollar projects, but (rather) projects ranging from US$50 million to US$100 million as they are more manageable," Unicorn Malaysia chairman Datuk Vaseehar Hassan Abdul Razack said.
Its corporate and investment banking segments will continue to drive the Islamic bank's ambitions to achieve this target. For its first full financial year last year, it made a profit of RM812,546.
He was speaking to reporters after the signing of a RM101 million joint Islamic financing deal with Bank Kerjasama Rakyat Malaysia Bhd (Bank Rakyat) for the Citta Mall project, which is being developed by Puncakdana Sdn Bhd and SEB Asset Management. According to Vaseehar, the US$50-US$100 million segment is a niche market for Unicorn Malaysia to focus on.
He said: "We have about three or four mandates in hand, but it's too premature for us to name (any) until we successfully complete them."
Some of the areas that the bank is considering are the oil and gas and shipping industries. The bank, Vaseehar added, is open to talks with Malaysian companies that have plans to go regional.
He noted that Unicorn Malaysia is also looking to collaborate with more local Islamic banks for tie-ups similar to the one inked with Bank Rakyat. Unicorn Malaysia is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Unicorn Investment Bank BSC of Bahrain.
It offers a full range of non-Malaysian ringgit banking under the Malaysia International Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC). The bank focuses on four core areas namely investment banking, corporate banking, treasury and strategic mergers and acquisitions.

(This story appeared in The Malaysian Reserve on July 22, 2009. The Malaysian Reserve is a daily business/finance newspaper published out of Kuala Lumpur, with a sectoral page on Islamic finance on Mondays, edited by Habhajan Singh)

Unicorn Malaysia eyes regional opportunities

By Alfean Hardy
Unicorn International Islamic Bank Malaysia Bhd (Unicorn Malaysia), which generated a profit for its first year of operation, is confident of building on this success in 2009 as it seeks to position itself as a hub for its parent's Asia Pacific expansion strategy.
The bank, a unit of Bahrain's Unicorn Investment Bank BSC, was granted an international Islamic bank licence by Bank Negara Malaysia in December 2007 to conduct a full range of nonringgit investment activities under the Malaysia International Financial Centre (MIFC) initiative.
For its fiscal year ended December 2008, the bank posted a net profit of RM812,546 at bank level, while at group level, it posted a net profit of RM777,572.
At a media briefing in Kuala Lumpur on Mar 26, Unicorn Malaysia chairman Datuk Vaseehar Hassan said, although the profit is not big, it is a morale booster given the fact that 2008 was the bank's start-up year.
"We started operations in January 2008 and, for the first eight months to nine months, we were still recruiting people," he said. "In fact, if it wasn't for the financial meltdown, we had some signed mandates on hand and we would have ended 2008 with a much better result. Some of these mandates had to be either deferred or aborted.
"Moving on to 2009, we have some work in the pipeline and we feel our 2009 results will be even better. We're in a resonably good position in spite of the financial crisis," he added.
Vaseehar said Unicorn Malaysia's 2008 performance was driven by its financial advisory, cross-border transactions and placement. This year, he said the bank would be focusing on the medium-sized — US$50 million (RM181.24 million) to US$100 million — sukuk issues and cross-border transactions.
"There's plenty of demand for these kinds of transactions from the SMEs (small-to-medium enterprises) and mediumsized corporations," he said, adding that it was its parent's strategy to make its Malaysian operation as a hub to penetrate the Asia Pacific market.
Unicorn Malaysia CEO Khalid Bhaimia said under the MIFC initiative, international business rather than domestic business was encouraged and that being able to do both cross-border transactions and placements in its first year was encouraging. On whether the current global situation would be a stumbling block to such operations, he said that international transactions were still on-going.
"The scale may be different, there may be not very many large-scale transactions because of the liquidity situation," he said. "However, we're not a very large bank for that purpose but, so far, in our segment of the market we believe that there are opportunities and we're seeing such opportunities now.
"But you won't see the billion US dollar cross-border transaction that you saw in 2007," he added.
Reuters adds: Unicorn expects to do US$400-US$500 million of transactions this year, with a strong market projected for medium-sized deals.
"Treasury is key element for our business here. Without funding support, it's difficult to go out and do business.

(This story appeared in The Malaysian Reserve on Mar 27, 2009. The Malaysian Reserve is a daily business/finance newspaper published out of Kuala Lumpur, with a sectoral page on Islamic finance on Mondays, edited by Habhajan Singh)

Bahrain’s Unicorn keen on investing in Malaysia

By Habhajan Singh & Ishun P Ahmad
Bahrain-based Unicorn Investment Bank (Unicorn), an Islamic investment bank with an outfit in Malaysia, is actively looking at investing in a number of areas locally, with plantation and real estate emerging strongly on their list.
"They have come and done their research some time ago," said chairman of Unicorn International Islamic Bank Malaysia Bhd (Unicorn Malaysia) Datuk Vaseehar Hassan.
Vaseehar said that the investments will probably be driven initially out of Bahrain until the Malaysian outfit has "enough size" to handle them locally.
Unicorn Malaysia, the first Islamic bank licensed under the Malaysian International
Islamic Financial Centre (MIFC) initiative, received permission to set up its operations from Bank Negara Malaysia early this year.
The Islamic banking outfit, which is licensed to conduct cut out non-ringgit transactions, is said to already have a number of deals in the pipeline and is reportedly confident of posting a profit by year-end.
However, when investing in the plantation sector, Unicorn will have to take into account the lower valuations of plantation assets due to the recent fall in crude palm oil prices and the current bearish sentiments on the edible oil.
"This, however, also provides opportunity in cheaper plantation assets," an analyst said.
According to him, the plantation sector continues to be relevant as CPO is likley to
rebound in the near- to medium-term. Hence, plantation assets would likely be revised upwards if this pans out.
In a recent interview, Vaseehaar, formerly chairman of RHB Islamic Bank Bhd, told the The Malaysian Reserve that Unicorn Malaysia had several deals in the pipeline, including a couple of mandates already signed that its teams are working on.
(The Malaysian Reserve, Page 1, Sept 23, 2008)