EcoBank in talks with Maybank to raise paid-up capital

KUALA LUMPUR: EcoBank, Kyrgyzstan’s premier Islamic bank, is in talks with Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) and other potential investors from Dubai and Kuwait on the bank’s plan to increase its paid-up capital to US$250mil from US$12mil.

The bank wants to divest a majority stake to foreign investors to raise the capital, Shamil M. Murtazaliev, adviser to the president of Kyrgyz Republic, told Bernama in Jeddah last week.

Murtazaliev was in Saudi Arabia for the annual conference of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) governors.

The preference is to have Maybank take up the stake as Kyrgyzstan was implementing the Malaysian model of Islamic economic system, according to Murtazaliev.

“We definitely need a Malaysian company’s expertise since we want to adopt the Malaysian model,” he said.

EcoBank converted its operations into an Islamic bank 1½ years ago as part of the republic’s adoption of a dual banking system comprising Islamic and conventional.

The conversion was assisted by two experts, of whom one was a Malaysian.

According to Murtazaliev, EcoBank is the most profitable bank among Kyrgyzstan’s 22 banks.