Posted Date : 29 May 2015
Malaysian Rating Corporation Berhad (MARC) yesterday honoured Malaysia’s top capital market players comprising investment banks, other financial institutions and bond/sukuk issuers at its 2014 Lead Managers Appreciation Evening held at Hilton Kuala Lumpur. Dato’ Dr. Nik Ramlah Mahmood, Deputy Chief Executive of the Securities Commission, was the guest of honour of the evening and presenter of the awards to the winners.
MARC Chairman Datuk Azizan Haji Abdul Rahman commented in his opening speech that he hoped that this recognition will inspire the capital market players to push the boundaries of performance and bring innovation to Malaysia’s debt and sukuk capital market. “The fuel for a vibrant and internationally competitive capital market in today’s challenging environment is innovation. Today’s event underlines Malaysia’s significant potential for productive and prudent financial innovation within a sound regulatory and supervisory framework,” said Datuk Azizan.
CIMB Investment Bank Berhad (CIMB Investment) topped MARC’s 2014 Lead Managers League Tables in the issue value as well as issue count categories. For the first time, MARC also presented a Market Innovator Award for the demonstration of market-leading innovation to the debt capital markets. The recipients of the Market Innovator Award were CIMB Investment as lead manager and DRB-HICOM Berhad as issuer of the latter’s RM2.0 billion Perpetual Sukuk Musharakah Programme.
Commenting on the innovative sukuk, MARC Chief Executive Officer Mohd Razlan Mohamed said that the Perpetual Sukuk offered by DRB-HICOM Berhad is the first Islamic corporate hybrid debt issue rated by MARC. “The Perpetual Sukuk is an innovative syariah-compliant financing instrument with many beneficial features, as it allows the issuer to improve its capital structure and funding stability,” said Mohd Razlan.
Dato’ Ahmad Fuaad Mohd Kenali, the Group Chief Financial Officer of DRB-HICOM Berhad, accepted the award on behalf of the issuer, while Dato’ Kong Sooi Lin, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer of CIMB Investment, accepted the award on behalf of the lead manager and advisor to the issue.
At the cocktail event, MARC also launched its revamped corporate website and web-based data platform called “MARC Online”. On the launching of MARC Online, Datuk Azizan said, “Improving our online presence is an important element of MARC’s stakeholder-centric business strategy.”
MARC’s enhanced corporate website features a vibrant new look, streamlined functionality and an improved ease of navigation. The new platform delivers content faster to MARC’s website users and offers a better overall user experience. MARC Online is also designed to improve responsiveness for users of mobile devices.
MARC continues to look upon the lead managers and issuers as its valued partners as the rating agency charts new territory in the evolving domestic credit rating landscape.
Contacts:
Ahmad Feizal Sulaiman Khan, +603-2082 2211/ feizal@marc.com.my;
James Foo, +603-2082 2212/ james@marc.com.my.