IBRA extends Danamon bid deadline

IBRA extends Danamon bid deadline

Dow Jones, Jakarta

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) has extended the deadline by two weeks for prospective investors to submit their preliminary bids for a 51 percent stake in Bank Danamon to March 14, an official with the agency said Tuesday.

IBRA's spokesman Raymond van Beekum said the agency decided to extend the deadline to accommodate more bids.

He said that as of last week IBRA had accepted bids for the Danamon stake from 15 investors, mostly from Asia.

Raymond said IBRA expected at least two more investors to submit bids.

IBRA will announce the short-listed bidders two or three days after the deadline for the preliminary bids ends, he said.

IBRA last month sent letters to over 100 banks inviting them to bid for the stake in Danamon.

The government is also selling a 20 percent stake in Danamon to public investors through the stock market.

The government currently owns 99.36 percent of Bank Danamon, an entity that was created from the merger of several local banks after the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.

The Bank Danamon divestment is part of IBRA's plan to raise funds to help finance the widening deficit in the state budget this year. It is also part of the economic programs it has promised to implement under the International Monetary Fund's US$5 billion bailout program.