KUALA LUMPUR: AmResearch has upgraded its rating on Malayan Banking to BUY from HOLD with new fair value of RM8.60 a share share (from RM7.20) or fairprice to book/BV of 2.05x (from 1.8x previously).

It said on Friday, July 2 that based on latest guidance from management, it came to understand that Maybank was unlikely to report large clean-up loan loss provisions or impairment loss on investments, in its upcoming final quarter for FY10.

AmResearch also said asset quality data was not expected to vary much when the company switches over to the new FRS139 provisions by its September 2010 quarter.

Maybank, it said, was relatively more confident, hinting that it is likely to be able to meet consensus net earnings of RM3.639 billion FY10F.

"We believe the four major catalysts for Maybank would be (1) Absence of large provisions in 4QFY10; (2) Ability to achieve consensus net earnings forecasts of RM3.639 billion for FY10F; (3) Relatively better-than-expected impaired loans data arising from FRS139, which will be reported by November 2010; and (4) Achieving its targeted net earnings of RM4.2 billion FY11F," it said.