ComBank eyes Myanmar for microfinance
View(s):Commercial Bank (Commercial) is in the radar screens of many international funds such as T. Rowe New Asia Fund, which entered its top 20 shareholders in 20,2017.
T. Rowe New Asia Fund now has 14,990,626 shares equating 1.61 per cent in Commercial which it acquired this year.
Officials say that they’re still purchasing and that in their frontier markets, Commercial is in its top slot. “In their (mathematical) model for suitable investments, we are one of the few ‘buy’ propositions,” Commercial Bank Managing Director/CEO Jegan Durairatnam told the Business Times. First State Investments, investment professionals based in Edinburgh, London and Singapore is also featured as a major shareholder of the bank as at 31 March this year.
Commercial has set its sights on Myanmar where it has a Representative Office in Yangon. “This year we’re trying to get approvals for our Myanmar franchise from the Central Bank,” Mr. Durairatnam added.
Currently Commercial has a restricted licence to function as a non-deposit taking financial entity, he said. “We want to maybe operate at a higher end of a micro-lender and, in time also at the lower end,” Mr. Durairatnam noted. The bank raised Rs. 10.1 billion from its rights issue in June.
(DEC)