Bank Lippo shares not to go on sale until 2006, BI says
Bank Lippo shares not to go on sale until 2006, BI says
Soraya Permatasari, Bloomberg/Jakarta
Indonesia's central bank won't allow PT Bank Lippo's majority shareholder to sell its stake until next year, said Siti Fadjriah, a deputy governor at Bank Indonesia.
Majority shareholders are subject to a two-year lockup period, and won't be allowed to sell stakes they bought in 2004 until February 2006, Siti Fadjriah, a deputy governor at Bank Indonesia, told reporters in Jakarta today.
Swissasia Global, controlled by Raiffeisen Zentralbank, Austria's fourth-largest bank, spent US$142 million in February 2004 buying 52.1 percent of Bank Lippo from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency. That stake is worth about $248 million at the current market price.
"There are steps to be taken if the stake is to be sold, including a 'fit and proper' test on the potential buyers," Fadjriah said. Bank Indonesia will not allow any stake sale before the lock-up period is over in February, she said.
Swissasia Global said on Monday that it hired Merrill Lynch & Co. to advise it on the possible sale of a part of its stake in Bank Lippo. Kuala Lumpur-based Khazanah Nasional Bhd., which owns more than two dozen companies with a total market value of $16 billion, said the same day it has begun talks to buy a stake in Bank Lippo. Khazanah is Malaysia's state investment arm.
Khazanah may invest in a stake in the Indonesian lender "either directly or indirectly, both on a standalone basis as well as with other institutions of equal high standing and credibility," Khazanah said.
Khazanah wants to invest more in regional financial services and technology businesses, seeking to boost returns. Indonesia, a market of 238 million people, is targeting faster economic growth as the nation accelerates its recovery from the 1997 Asian crisis.
Indonesia sold the Bank Lippo stake as part of asset disposals aimed at cutting the government's budget deficit and recouping the Rp 450 trillion it spent to bail out banks after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency took control of Bank Lippo from its previous owners, the Riady family, after the government injected funds into the lender in 1999 to boost capital. The family still holds a minority stake, partly through PT Lippo E-Net, which owns 5.6 percent of the lender. `Khazanah controls Commerce Asset-Holding Bhd., Malaysia's second-largest lender, which owns a 61.1 percent stake in PT Bank Niaga, Indonesia's No. 8 lender.