Local investor mulls foreign bank to join BCA bid
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Local business tycoon Setiawan Djodi said he might ask for a foreign bank to join his consortium in bidding for Bank Central Asia (BCA), and warned the government against trusting the Salim Group's promise not to try to reclaim BCA from the state.
Setiwan, owner of the Setdco business group, said his consortium of three investors might add a fourth to lead the pack in the bidding process.
"We are considering a foreign bank to lead the consortium," he told reporters on Friday.
However that might be difficult given the deadline for the final bid on Jan. 28.
Bank Indonesia is already conducting its fit and proper test on the remaining nine bidders for BCA. Setiawan's consortium is one of them.
Setdco's bidding partners are the Malaysian Plantation Group and the Alliance Bank, one of the top 10 banks in Malaysia.
Malaysian Plantations led the consortium but resigned at the request of Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad for as yet unspecified reasons, according to Setiawan.
He said Malaysia regulations called for companies to seek the government's approval if they intended to lead a consortium bidding for a foreign bank.
Last December, the Malaysian investor was said to have told the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange that it has withdrawn from the bidding process, bringing the number of BCA bidders down to eight.
But the government said it had received no notification of its resignation which meant the list of bidders remained as was.
Setiawan said Malaysian Plantation was still a bidder, but did not lead the consortium anymore.
He suspected the company might have succumbed to high level lobbying by the consortium's Indonesian competitors.
Media reports had quoted him as blaming the Soeharto family for pressuring Malaysian Plantation.
The Soeharto family has close ties with the Salim Group, whom Setiawan suspected of still trying to reclaim BCA.
Setiawan further warned the government not to take Salim's words for granted, when the group vowed to steer away from BCA.
One of Salim's family members, Anthony Salim has reportedly promised State Minister of State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi that the group would not join the bidding.
But Setiawan raised doubts on the promise. "He (Anthony) is still meeting important people in Malaysia, hoping to get them to join him in bidding for BCA," he said.
The deeply indebted Salim Group is barred from buying back BCA until it settles its debts to the government.
Skeptics say the most likely scenario for Salim to regain BCA is through the use of nominees. It means that even if the name Salim does not appear among the bidders, the group may still regain control of BCA through people they have paid to join the bidding process.
Signs of this appearing to work come from the sales of other former Salim companies to dubious investors.
"I can only hope that BCA will fall into the hands of the type of investors we all wish for," Setiawan went on.
If he were to drop from the race, he said, he expected the British based Standard Chartered Bank Plc., or U.S. investment firms Newbridge and Farallon to win the tender.
But Setiawan ruled out the possibility of asking StanChart, the strongest candidate for BCA, to replace Malaysian Plantation's lead.
The British bank is on the lookout for a partner for BCA, over concerns that owning a controlling stake in the local bank might affect its credit rating.
Commenting on what he planned to do with BCA should his consortium win, Setiawan said he would like to see BCA become a strong regional retail bank instead of just a local one.