Danamon sells 14% shares in Chinatrust<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed Bank Danamon agreed on Wednesday
\nto sell 14 percent of its shares in Bank Chinatrust Indonesia, a
\njoint-venture bank, to Taiwan's Chinatrust Commercial Bank.<\/p>\n
Danamon said in a media statement that the transaction would
\nallow Chinatrust Commercial Bank to control a 99 percent stake in
\nthe joint-venture bank.<\/p>\n
"This does not go against the Bank Indonesia ruling that
\nallows a foreign bank to own up to 99 percent shares in a joint-
\nventure bank," it said.<\/p>\n
The statement did not reveal the price of the transaction.<\/p>\n
Bank Chinatrust Indonesia was formed in 1996 with the
\nTaiwanese bank owning 85 percent shares and its local partner
\nBank Tamara the other 15 percent. But the latter was acquired by
\nBank Danamon in 1999.<\/p>\n
At the end of 2000, Bank Chinatrust Indonesia had total assets
\nof around Rp 1.43 trillion, and profits totaling Rp 49.3 billion.
\nThe Jakarta-based joint-venture bank has branches in Bandung and
\nSurabaya.<\/p>\n
Chinatrust Commercial Bank is a publicly listed bank with
\ntotal assets of around US$23 billion. The bank is one of the top
\nbanks in Taiwan focussing on retail, corporate and investment
\nbanking.<\/p>\n
There have been rumors that Chinatrust Commercial Bank is also
\ninterested in purchasing government shares in publicly listed
\nBank Central Asia (BCA).<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) is planning to
\nsell around 40 percent of government shares in BCA through the
\nstock market or as direct placement to institutional investors.
\nThe divestment program is expected to be completed in July or
\nAugust.<\/p>\n
But rumors suggested that Chinatrust wanted to purchase the
\nBCA shares via direct placement in a bid to obtain majority
\nshareholder status.<\/p>\n
However, legislators have insisted that the sale must be
\nconducted by a double-track mechanism and that any strategic
\npartner willing to purchase government shares in BCA must be
\nclassified as a major international bank. BCA is the country's
\nlargest private bank.<\/p>\n
The last requirement had been stipulated to avoid BCA's former
\nowner, the Salim Group, from owning shares in the bank. The Salim
\nGroup had been lambasted for its role in abusing BCA, which
\ncaused the government to spend a lot of taxpayers money in 1999
\nto bailout the bank.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Danamon said that it had also signed a cooperation
\nagreement with Chinatrust Commercial Bank, under which Indonesian
\nworkers in Taiwan can send money back home via the network
\nprovided by the two banks.<\/p>\n
Danamon said that the remittance service provided by
\nChinatrust was popular among Indonesian workers in Taiwan,
\ncurrently around 70,000 workers.<\/p>\n
Danamon said that in the future, the cooperation could be
\nexpanded to other services including business finance, and
\ncorrespondent banking.(rei)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/danamon-sells-14-shares-in-chinatrust-1447893297",
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