IBRA to sell Bank Permata in January
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said on Wednesday that it would sell up to 71 percent stake in Bank Permata in January next year.
Agency chairman Syafruddin Temenggung said that 51 percent stake would be sold to strategic investors, while the remainder 20 percent would be sold via block sale on the Jakarta Stock Exchange.
He said that the sale process would start in January and would be completed in February.
The government via IBRA currently holds a 91.3 percent stake in Bank Permata, which is one of the country's 10 largest banks.
The bank is a result of a merger of five banks: Bank Universal, Bank Bali, Bank Patriot, Bank Arthamedia, and Bank Prima Expresses. It has total assets of Rp 29 trillion (about US$3.43 billion).
IBRA, set up in 1998 following the regional financial crisis, took over a number of troubled banks. It is mandated to restructure the banks and sell them to raise cash to help finance the state budget, which is heavily burdened by the cost of the government bank bailout program. For this year, the agency is targeted to raise around Rp 26 trillion.
The government plans to close the agency in February next year.
During the past couple of years, the agency has sold a majority stake in a number of banks. In addition to Bank Permata, IBRA is also planning to sell a 52 percent stake in the publicly listed Bank Lippo.
The sale of the Bank Lippo stake was supposed to be completed in October, but the agency decided to postpone it due to low bids from investors.
The three initial bidders for the Bank Lippo stake were Eurocapital Asia Ltd., Summit Investment Ltd. and Swissasia Global.
The agency relaunched the sale earlier this month and expects to complete it sometime in February.
IBRA, currently holds a 54.9 percent stake in Bank Lippo, while the remainders of the shares are held by public investors, and Lippo E-Net (9.6 percent), which is controlled by the Riyadi family, the founder and former controlling owner of the bank.
The bank's non-audited consolidated financial report said that as of September, Lippo had booked a net profit of 27.6 billion (US$3.27 billion), with total assets of Rp 25.8 trillion.
Meanwhile, the Office of the State Minister of State Enterprises said on Wednesday that the government might sell more shares in the state-owned tin miner PT Timah next year amid strong global tin prices.
Ministry senior official Aloysius Ro said the shares of the publicly listed firm could be sold via a secondary public offering.
The government now owns a 65 percent state in the world's largest integrated tin miner, with the remainder is in the hands of public investors.
The government is targeting to raise around Rp 5 trillion from next year's privatization program.