KUALA LUMPUR (June 8): Malaysia Building Society Bhd (MBSB) is targeting an 8% overall loan growth for 2015, despite weak consumer sentiment caused by the weakening ringgit which hit a nine-year low today.

"Most of our loans and exposures are in ringgit, so we don't have much currency exposure. This would mean that the weakening of the ringgit against the US dollar and also other currencies will not affect our line of business. Most of our businesses are all localised," MBSB president and chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Zaini Othman told reporters after a signing ceremony for a RM250 million tawarruq financing facility between MBSB and YBK Usahasama Sdn Bhd (YBKU) today.

He added that MBSB currently has a corporate-to-retail ratio of 12% to 88%, but hopes to see the corporate segment grow to 35% against the retail of 65% within the next three years.

"We have moved away from retail and more towards the corporate segment. This is in line with our aspirations and business plans.

"We are targeting to do more corporate businesses. It is going to be a very competitive year, but hopefully we will be able to achieve what we have targeted," said Zaini.

Earlier, YBKU intends to use the refinancing facility to perform maintenance services works at the Universiti Teknologi MARA campus in Jasin, Melaka, for a concession period of 23 years.

"We are indeed proud to be participating in this deal. The education sector has been identified as the 10th major area under the National Key Economic Area stipulated in the Economic Transformation Programme," said Zaini.

MBSB (fundamental: 1.2; valuation: 3) shares closed 1.08 or two sen lower at RM1.84 today, for a market capitalisation of RM4.99 billion. The counter saw 1.19 million shares changing hands.

(Note: The Edge Research's fundamental score reflects a company's profitability and balance sheet strength, calculated based on historical numbers. The valuation score determines if a stock is attractively valued or not, also based on historical numbers. A score of 3 suggests strong fundamentals and attractive valuations.)