UPDATE 1-Malaysian AMMB eyes Vietnam for investment banking

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KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 (Reuters) - Malaysia's fifth-largest bank, AMMB Holdings (AMMB.KL: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), plans to launch investment banking and Islamic finance businesses in fast-growing Vietnam, a senior company official said on Wednesday.

With average annual growth of 7 percent since 2000, Vietnam has one of the world's best performing economies after China.

AMMB also plans an Islamic stock broking operation in Malaysia, said Amarjeet Kaur, director of group corporate services.

"We are...in the midst of setting up our separate Islamic stock broking operations sometime by the first half of this year," he told reporters on the sidelines of an investor conference.

"It will probably begin operations by around July this year." (Reporting by Liau Y-Sing; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)