IBRA sells Indovina stake

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) has sold a 50 percent stake in Vietnam's Indovina Bank to Taiwan's United World Chinese Commercial Bank for US$10.1 million, the agency said on Saturday.

The agency said in a statement it conducted the sale through a bidding process "in which six potential investors submitted their written interests."

"The United World Chinese Commercial Bank was chosen as the investor with a bidding price of $10.1 million," IBRA said.

IBRA owned the Indovina stake via a settlement with its original co-owner - PT Bank Dagang Nasional Indonesia - which it closed in August 1998 after the bank received massive liquidity injections from the central bank.

BDNI pledged the Indovina stake to IBRA as part of a settlement to repay the government for those funds.

Indovina Bank was established through a partnership between state-owned Industrial and Commercial Bank of Vietnam, or Incombank, and BDNI.

IBRA said BDNI had bought the Indovina share in 1993 for $6 million and in 1995 injected a further $2.5 million into the bank.