Bank Rakyat Share

Bank Rakyat get approval to increase share capital to three billion


KUALA LUMPUR:Bank Rakyat received Bank Negara Malaysia's approval last month to increase its share capital by one billion more to three billion.

Cooperatives and Bank Rakyat members will be given priority in subscribing to the new shares, the Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob told a media conference after officiating the bank's annual general meeting here today.

He expects matters such as the distribution of shares to those interested to be decided by the Bank Rakyat board in May.

He said there is a long waiting list for the share subscription with the demand value exceeding RM1 billion, while also indicating, non-members comprise 40 per cent of those on it.

What is clear he said, is that, not all who apply for the shares will get it and those who do, will not receive the full amount applied for.

Ismail Sabri said demand for the Bank Rakyat shares is due to its encouraging performance, having successfully maintained the 15 per cent annual dividend since 1999.

Earlier in his speech at the AGM, he reminded the bank to not forget the government's contribution in injecting funds into it, at the time when it almost went bankrupt.

He added that more than RM30 billion of the deposits in Bank Rakyat was now from the government, government agencies and government linked companies.

Meanwhile, Bank Rakyat chairman Tan Sri Dr Syed Jalaludin Syed Salim, said the bank plans to open seven more outlets in the Ar-Rahnu X'Change network and urged cooperatives to take advantage of the opportunity to develop the Islamic pawnbroking business with it.

He also said this is in line with the target of giving out loans amounting to RM200 million this year through the Ar-Rahnu X'Change network.

He said to date, Bank Rakyat has shared expertise on the Ar-Rahnu X'Change franchise with 17 cooperatives which have recorded loans of RM121.702 million since December 2010.

On Bank Rakyat's support for cooperatives, he said as of end February this year, the bank had given out loans amounting to RM1.027 billion to the latter, comprising RM943.48 million in the form of working capital, RM57.62 million for the Ar-Rahnu business and also for the purchase of property, construction and transport.