Commonwealth Close to Sealing Bank Buy

The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is close to completing its acquisition of a 95% stake in Surabaya-based Bank Arta Niaga Kencana, the founder of the Indonesian bank Harry Wijaya said Wednesday (25/7/07), according to Dow Jones Newswires.

Wijaya declined to mention the value of the transaction, but said that he will get a 20% stake in insurance company PT Commonwealth Life as "compensation".

In June, Commonwealth Bank bought local insurance company PT Astra CMG Life and has renamed it PT Commonwealth Life.