KUALA LUMPUR: RHB Capital Bhd (RHBCap) group managing director (MD) Kellee Kam (pic) tendered his resignation last week, sources familiar with the matter told The Edge Financial Daily.

“The resignation has to be deliberated at the board level and it will go through a process. The resignation was done on a friendly basis and was not triggered by any misunderstanding. RHBCap has a succession plan in place,” said the source.

Candidates who are shortlisted to take over from Kam are said to include Datuk Khairussaleh Ramli, who is the bank’s deputy group MD as well as MD of RHB Bank Bhd.

Kam, who took on his current role four years ago in 2011, has been with the RHB group for 13 years. Prior to taking on the MD role, he held the position of group chief financial officer.

RHBCap is expected to release an official statement today. Meanwhile, banking analysts are surprised by the news.

“There had been no indication on this. Kam did a good job for the group. The transformation that RHBCap went through recently had a lot to do with Kam and his team,” said a banking analyst.

From a net profit of RM1.2 billion for its financial year ended Dec 31, 2009 (FY09), RHBCap’s bottom line expanded to RM1.83 billion in FY13. For the nine months ended Sept 30, 2014, RHBCap’s net profit jumped 16% year-on-year to RM1.5 billion.

Bloomberg, quoting sources, reported that Kam had tendered his resignation and is currently serving out a three-month notice period.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on February 12, 2015.