CIMB has long been the pre-eminent investment bank in Malaysia. Year after year, the most powerful brokerage in the country has topped the equity capital markets, debt capital markets and M&A league tables in the investment banking categories in Euromoney’s Awards for excellence.
Sri Nazir Razak, CIMB Group’s CEO – referred to in Kuala Lumpur circles as Malaysia’s unofficial finance minister, since his brother Najib, the prime minister, is said to seek his advice – has risen through investment banking, building that business before the many mergers that turned CIMB into a full-service bank, and it remains the bank’s most impressive arm.
It is consistently on the deals that matter nationally each year: the M$14.8 billion ($4.7 billion) IPO for Petronas Chemicals Group in 2010, the $3 billion bonds and $1.5 billion sukuk from Petronas the previous year, the M$20 billion Islamic MTN programme for Pengurusan Air, and the M$11.2 billion IPO for Maxis. And it has been a leader when Malaysia’s national champions have ventured into other markets, such as on the S$1.5
