James Riady to sell his California bank

James Riady to sell his California bank

SAN FRANCISCO (Bloomberg): James Riady, the Indonesian
businessman whose family controls the Lippo group of financial
and real estate companies, is in talks to sell his California
bank, the bank said.

Lippo Bank California, a trade finance and real estate
business with about $100 million in assets, said it's in the
"final stages of negotiations" to sell itself to another
California bank, which it didn't name.

San Francisco-based Lippo Bank California said Riady, who
owns 99 percent of its shares, decided to sell the bank because
he's too busy working on his businesses in Asia to devote enough
time to the U.S. bank.

"In view of conditions in Asia, and Indonesia in particular,
he is not able to devote the time and attention he considers
necessary to the development of Lippo Bank California," the
company said.

The bank's president, James Per Lee, said he hopes to
complete the sale in the next few weeks, and that the buyer is
another California bank, although not a consumer bank. Lippo
employs about 65 people in offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles
and San Jose.

The bank was founded in 1961 as the Bank of Trade. Riady took
control in 1985, and the name was changed to Lippo Bank
California in the late 1980s.

Riady and the Lippo Group were drawn into controversy earlier
this year when the Washington Post reported that a congressional
report on political donations identified Riady and his father,
Mochtar Riady, as among six people with strong ties to China who
may have funneled money into 1996 U.S. political
campaigns. Lippo denied the allegations.