Govt sells 10% shares in Mandiri
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government collected on Thursday Rp 2.87 trillion (about US$330 million) in proceeds from the sale of a 10 percent stake in Bank Mandiri in the stock market via private placement in another round of the privatization of the bank.
Mahmuddin Yasin, a deputy to the State Minister for State Enterprises in charge of privatization, said that the shares were priced at Rp 1,450 each.
"The offering, which totaled 1.98 billion shares, was 1.5 times oversubscribed," said Mahmuddin.
The share price was lower than Mandiri's Rp 1,500 last quoted price at the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) on Wednesday, before the trading was suspended, pending the completion of the offering.
Earlier, it was reported that the bidding prices had been set at a range of Rp 1,450 and 1,475 per share. Of the total number of shares, about half of which were offered to local investors via Danareksa Sekuritas, while UBS Warburg handled the offering of the remaining shares to foreign investors.
The sale was in addition to the first one last year, in which the government successfully sold 20 percent of Mandiri's stake in what has been dubbed as the most successful share offering ever.
After the Thursday's sale, the government now holds 70 percent of the bank's stake.
Mandiri is included on the list of state firms to be sold this year, along with another 14 companies, in order to meet the government's privatization revenue target of Rp 5 trillion.
The bank was formed in 1998 through a merger of four state banks; Bank Ekspor Impor Indonesia (Bank Exim), Bank Dagang Negara (BDN), Bank Bumi Daya (BBD) and Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo).
It now boasts staggering assets of Rp 251 trillion, making it the largest lender in the country.
Under the privatization program, the government last year managed to rake in Rp 7.4 trillion in proceeds, surpassing the initial target of Rp 6.2 trillion.
The proceeds mostly came from the sales of stake in four state companies: Mandiri (20 percent), Bank Rakyat Indonesia (40.5 percent), cement maker Indocement (16.9 percent) and natural gas distribution company Perusahaan Gas Negara (39 percent).
The government has been relying on proceeds from the program to help cover the state budget deficit, which for this year has been set at Rp 24.4 trillion or 1.2 percent of the country's gross domestic products (GDP).
The government has said that it planned to sell another 10 percent stake in Mandiri this year, although the House of Representatives has not yet approved the plan.