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.