Govt to start Permata sale by Dec. 10
Govt to start Permata sale by Dec. 10
Bloomberg, Jakarta
Indonesia may start selling a fifth of Bank Permata, the nation's seventh-largest lender, on the stock exchange by Dec. 10, seeking to raise funds to further reduce its budget deficit.
The government expects to sell the stake at Rp 703 a share, the price paid by Standard Chartered Plc and PT Astra International last month for a 51 percent stake, said the asset sale agency. At that price, which marks a 43 percent discount to the bank's closing share price yesterday, the government would raise Rp 1.08 trillion (US$119.2 million) from the sale.
"We're trying to take advantage of the strong momentum on the Jakarta Stock Exchange," Mohammad Syahrial, chairman of PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset, the government's asset-sale agency, said in Jakarta.
Indonesia is selling assets, including bank stakes, to raise funds to cover a deficit estimated at Rp 26.3 trillion this year. Demand for Permata shares may be bolstered by a rally on Indonesia's stock exchange, where the benchmark index rose to a record yesterday for the third day and has gained more than 43 percent this year.
Asset sales are also aimed at recouping part of the more than Rp 450 trillion the country spent to bail out lenders after the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Shares of Permata will be offered to domestic and international investors, said Raden Pardede, vice president director PT Perusahaan Pengelola Aset. The 20 percent stake has a market value of Rp 1.93 trillion.
Standard Chartered, a U.K. lender that makes two-thirds of its profit in Asia, and Astra International, an Indonesian automobile distributor, acquired 51 percent of Bank Permata for Rp 2.77 trillion. They paid Rp 703 apiece, or 3.18 times Permata's book value of Rp 221 as of the end of 2003, and expressed interest in buying the additional 20 percent as well.
"If they can bid at the best price, we will sell to them," said Pardede.
Regina Seow, Standard Chartered spokeswoman in Singapore, wasn't immediately available to comment.
Earlier this week, the government sold a 16.28 percent stake in Bank Niaga to investors for Rp 585.8 billion. Niaga is 52.8 percent controlled by Commerce Asset-Holding Bhd., Malaysia's second largest lender.