KUALA LUMPUR (May 15): Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd (Takaful) is the 6th top gainer on the local bourse today on positive investors sentiment over its upcoming share split exercise, regardless of its announcement yesterday of its exposure to debt-ridden state-owned strategic investment firm, 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), in the form of RM85 million sukuk subscription.
 
Takaful (fundamental: 0.95; valuation: 1.5), which has been trending upwards since May 13 when it announced the share split exercise, hit a multi-year high of RM16.36, up 38 sen or 3.5% from yesterday's close.

At 4.12pm, the counter shed some gains and eased to RM16.02, still up 22 sen or 1.4%, after some 284,600 shares changed hands. The current price gives it a market value of RM2.6 billion.
 
Remisier Goh Kay Chong told theedgemarkets.com that the share price has been trending upward since the company announced the share split exercise on Wednesday (May 13), which involves the subdivision of every one existing ordinary share of RM1.00 each in Takaful Malaysia — held as at 5pm on May 27 — into five ordinary shares of RM0.20 each in Takaful Malaysia.
 
Goh said investors are buying before the share split as they believe "the share value will go up again, and they will make more money."
 
Another remisier, who wished to stay anonymous, echoed Goh's view. He noted that Takaful is one of the best performing counters in the finance sector.
 
"In 2009 to 2011, the share was trading at 94 sen. But now, it has shot up [over] RM16.00. It shot up 30 sen yesterday, and it is up again today," he said.

BIMB Holdings Bhd (BIMB) revealed yesterday that Takaful, which is 60.31% owned by BIMB, had subscribed to bonds issued by 1MDB in 2009, but stressed that its wholly owned banking division Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd has 'zero exposure' to the state-owned firm.

The bonds taken up were issued by 1MDB when it was still known as the Terengganu Investment Authority.

(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.)