KUALA LUMPUR/DUBAI: Malaysia is promoting overseas investment by its takaful firms (Islamic insurers) as it seeks to internationalise its Islamic finance industry, but a lack of expertise and low risk appetite are likely to slow the drive.
The takaful firms currently invest little abroad; a shift from the safety of local assets to better-yielding instruments abroad could boost their profits while increasing demand for sukuk (Islamic bonds) from the Gulf.
Malaysia’s takaful firms are already major investors in domestically issued sukuk, holding over 60 per cent of the RM19 billion (US$6.1 billion) of assets in domestic private and government debt securities as of December 2012, according to central bank data. Assets were up 12.4 per cent from a year ago.
To encourage cross-border Islamic business, the Malaysian government said last month that takaful operators would be allowed to invest abroad without limit, lifting a requirement for them to hold at least 80 per cent of assets locally.
But currently, firms are far below the old limit on foreign investment, suggesting it was not the rules but their own inclinations that curtailed their overseas activities. In some cases the firms have no foreign exposure at all.
“We adopt a prudent approach when considering overseas investments and the appetite for Gulf sukuk is fairly moderate,” said Ahmad Rizlan Azman, chief executive of Etiqa Takaful Bhd (Etiqa Takaful), Malaysia’s largest takaful operator.
The domestic focus is partly due to ample supplies of sukuk in Malaysia; last year the local market saw US$103 billion worth of sukuk issued, according to estimates from Zawya, a Thomson Reuters company.
“Most of the sukuk issuances (globally) last year were from Malaysia, including some by Gulf companies. If this trend continues, we do not expect significant liquidity to move to the Gulf,” said Ahmad Rizlan.
Another obstacle to internationalisation is the meagre experience of some Malaysian takaful firms; four were set up in the last four years, said Mohd Faruk Abdul Karim, head of the investment department at MAA Takaful, part of listed MAA Group.
Industry concentration aggravated the problem, with the top three operators holding roughly 90 per cent of assets, according to Reuters analysis of the industry’s financials. There are a total of 12 firms.
Market leader Etiqa Takaful held RM9.5 billion as of June 2012, approximately half of industry assets, leaving other firms struggling for scale. Five other firms which publicly reported financials had assets below RM2 billion each.
Etiqa Takaful currently allocates roughly 2.5 per cent of assets under management to foreign sukuk, while other firms are believed to have low overseas allocations as well, Ahmad Rizlan said.
Dependence on local assets has come at a price, with many takaful firms missing their target returns, said the financial controller of another Malaysian takaful operator, who declined to be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
“There is a lack of creativity compared to conventional insurers, because the conventional side is a developed market with more intense competition and more pressure to innovate.”
Several firms have been suffering losses or shrinking profits. Great Eastern Takaful, which held RM183.8 million in assets as of December 2012, posted a RM15.2 million loss in 2012 and a RM19.1 million loss a year earlier.
Etiqa Takaful posted a net profit of RM9.6 million in the first half of 2012, but that was down from RM109.6 million a year earlier, according to company financials.
Bucking the trend is Takaful Malaysia, the second-largest takaful firm in the country and majority-owned by BIMB Holdings. It posted a RM100.1 million group profit in 2012, up from RM76.4 million in 2011.
In September, the firm said it was preparing to set up a wholly owned subsidiary in Labuan, Malaysia’s offshore centre, for the purpose of investing in British real estate. But for the time being at least, such initiatives will be the exception rather than the rule. — Reuters