Malaysia’s domestic capital markets are dominated by CIMB and Maybank, while a few international firms are muscling in. Among them, Affin Hwang has an unenviable position, eking out what it can.
In the country’s primary capital markets, CIMB handled nine equity deals, totalling $1.8 billion during our awards period, while Maybank raised $1.3 billion through six trades, according to Dealogic data. The pair ranked first and second in Dealogic’s global coordinator and bookrunner league table for the period, respectively.
Across the same 12 months, Affin Hwang worked on five deals for $90 million, barely 3% of the market by deal value, ranking 11th in the league table, below local and international firms. But take a step back from the primary markets and it seems Affin Hwang knows what it is good at, and where to focus its energy. Because as a brokerage it turns the tables on the country’s megabanks. Under the guidance of group managing director Maimoonah Hussain, the firm has shown it can take on any competitor when it comes to trading.
Malaysia’s securities trading is no quiet market, and Affin Hwang dominates. Data from Bursa Malaysia shows it led the broker league table of domestic and international participants from January through May this year by trading volume and value, only once slipping into second position behind CIMB by overall value in March.
It handled RM58 billion ($13.9 billion) in trades from January 2019 to the end of May and throughout the period, the firm’s market share was always between 15% and 17% by volume, and between 11% and 12% by value.
The tables for June 2018 to the end of that year paint an almost identical picture; Affin Hwang led trading month on month, slipping once into second place by value behind CIMB in September, and by volume in November, just trailing Kenanga Investment Bank.
Overall, it could not compete with the country’s biggest in the capital markets over the last year by deal number and size, but the bank is not incapable: through its investor relationships, it got itself on a pair of IPOs and ran three follow-on offerings.
Affin Hwang is not going to be leading the primary capital markets any time soon, but as a securities house it is second to none.