IBRA seeks new Swissasia bid for Lippo

IBRA seeks new Swissasia bid for Lippo

Dow Jones, Jakarta

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said Swissasia
Global has until next on Tuesday to submit a new bid for a 52.05
percent stake in PT Bank Lippo, given its earlier bid was below
the floor price set by the agency.

"Swissasia has one week to renew its bid," said Rohan Hafas,
spokesman for IBRA, on Tuesday.

Swissasia, a consortium led by Austria's Raiffeisen
Zentralbank Oesterreich AG, is the only bidder that IBRA has
shortlisted for the Bank Lippo stake.

Swissasia's underpriced bid is just the latest of the hitches
IBRA has faced in its attempt to offload the Bank Lippo stake.

IBRA canceled October's sale after failing to get good bids
and amid allegations that Lippo's founder, the Riady family, was
involved in the bidding to regain control of the bank.

Sources close to the deal said Swissasia only bid Bank Lippo
at Rp 403 per share, well below IBRA's floor price of Rp 591 per
share.

IBRA, a government agency set up to clean up the banking
sector after the 1997 financial crisis, hopes to raise $200
million from the current 52 percent stake sale of Bank Lippo.

The agency is racing against time to sell off its remaining
assets before the government ends its operations at the end of
February.