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.