The long-term risks faced by OCBC with reduced stakes in Malaysian insurance operations

SINGAPORE (Sept 26): Maybank Kim Eng is maintaining its “hold” recommendation on OCBC Bank with an unchanged price target of $11.05 pending further details of reduced stakes in the Malaysian business of its 87.9%-owned insurance arm, Great Eastern Holdings (GEH).

This comes after GEH last week announced it was assessing its options to sell its minority stake in Great Eastern Life Assurance (Malaysia) to comply with Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) requirement of a minimum 30% domestic ownership in local insurance companies.