KUCHING: The Sarawak government's proposed acquisition of a majority share in Affin Bank could be formalised in "weeks", said the bank's group chief executive officer today.

Datuk Wan Razly Abdullah, who's also the bank's president, said the deal was going to happen "very soon", and that the two parties, the Sarawak government (buyer) and Armed Forces Fund Board (seller), were "tidying up some legal documents".

The state government plans to increase its stake in the bank to about 30 per cent from 4.8 per cent.

On July 19, the state government and the board signed a memorandum of understanding to explore potential cooperation, information sharing and mutual support while awaiting Bank Negara's approval on the sale and purchase agreement for additional shares in the bank.

The bank is the country's seventh largest in terms of assets.

Wan Razly said Sarawak coming on board would provide a quantum shift to the bank's "Affin Axelerate 2028 Plan" (AX28) launched in 2024.

The quantum shift, he said, was because the bank would have access to a "huge customer and deposit or liquidity base".

Wan Razly said Affin Bank's presence in Sarawak would be amplified, referring to the bank adding eight more branches to the six it has in the state.

Of the eight new branches, six will be in Kuching and one each in Miri and Bintulu.

The Bintulu branch will be the first to open in the next or two months, he said, the rest would open by the end of the year.

Of its current six branches, three are in Kuching and one each in Sibu, Bintulu and Miri.

With more branches, Wan Razly said, the bank's target in Sarawak was to grow its deposit base by RM2 billion in the next one to two years to between RM4 billion and RM5 billion.

The bank's current account and savings account (Casa) level in the state was RM3 billion, he said.

He said the state government had looked into the bank's AX28 plan, which he described as "our ambitious and aggressive plan going forward".

"They appreciate the plan. They appreciate the bank's ambition."

He said: "(On the) whole, they want to push the AX28 plan. The crux of AX28 is to double the bank's size to become a RM200 billion bank.

"Today we have RM110 billion in assets."

https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2024/08/1096514/sarawak-set-own-more-affin-bank-shares-weeks-says-ceo