5 foreign investors vie for BCA stakes

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Five foreign investors have submitted their preliminary bids for a 51 percent stake in PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) under a tender offering that the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said it would finalize by next month.

IBRA chairman, I Putu Gede Ary Suta said of the 15 investors that had submitted their preliminary bids, five of them were foreign investors.

"I am confident we can finalize this by the year's end," Ary Suta told reporters.

He declined to identify the foreign investors. However, earlier reports said that the foreign investors eying the BCA stake included Standard Chartered, ABN Amro, JP Morgan Partners, and Bank of China.

The government is under pressure to complete the BCA divestment this year to help finance the state budget.