Affin shows interest in EON Cap takeover

Affin sees EON Cap takeover a possible opportunity to strengthen position in banking industry.

Affin Holdings Bhd., a Malaysian banking group partly owned by Hong Kong’s Bank of East Asia Ltd., said it may consider bidding to take over EON Capital Bhd.

“Anything that could be a good fit for the group, anything that can bring better growth for us, strengthen our position, certainly we would like to give it a shot,” Managing Director Lodin Wok Kamaruddin told reporters in Kuala Lumpur on Monday. “If no one else is looking at it and if we can get approval from the authorities, we may want to have a look at it.”

A bid for EON, the Southeast Asian nation’s seventh-largest lender, will pit Affin against billionaire Quek Leng Chan’s Hong Leong Bank Bhd., which on April 1 raised its offer for EON to 5.06 billion ringgit ($1.57 billion). A takeover by Affin would create a banking group with 86.4 billion ringgit ($26.84 billion) of assets, overtaking Hong Leong Bank as Malaysia’s No. 6 lender, according to calculations by Bloomberg.

Hong Leong Bank slid 2 percent to 8.67 ringgit ($2.69) as of 3:18 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur trading, poised for its steepest decline since Feb. 8. Affin lost 1.3 percent to 3.04 ringgit ($0.94) and EON dropped 1.1 percent to 7.10 ringgit ($2.21).

View the full story in Business Week.