Panin, Sorak Financial consortia bid for 515 BII stake
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said on Monday it had received final bids from two consortia, Bank Panin and Sorak Financial Holding Pte. Ltd., in the sale of a 51 percent stake in Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII).
IBRA spokesman Rohan Hafas said another consortium, United Overseas Bank from Singapore, did not submit its final bid and was therefore eliminated from the sale process.
He said the agency could not name the winning bidder as yet, since "both consortia made offers higher than the price set by IBRA, so further evaluation would be needed in determining the preferred bidder".
Initially, the agency planned to announce the winning bidder later on Monday.
Rohan said the process to determine the preferred bidder in the sale would probably be completed in short time, probably one or two days.
After the preferred bidder was selected, the agency would then submit all necessary documents to Bank Indonesia for a fit and proper test in accordance with the country's banking regulations.
Elsewhere, IBRA said in a press statement that the two remaining potential investors for the publicly listed BII, the country's sixth largest bank, comprised of seven companies together.
The Panin consortium groups together Raiffeisen Zentralbank Osterreich AG, Austria's top bank, Bank Panin, an Indonesian mid- sized bank, and Fleu Enterprises Ltd.
Korea's leading lender Kookmin Bank Co. Ltd. headed the second consortium, along with Asia Financial Holdings Pte. Ltd., ICB Financial Group Holdings Ltd. and Barclays.
Previously the financial arm of the Sinar Mas conglomerate, BII was taken over by the government through IBRA in its recapitalization program during the 1997-1998 financial crisis. In return, IBRA was given 93.7 percent ownership in the bank.
BII has now transformed itself to become one of the country's top 10 banks with assets worth more than Rp 36 trillion (US$4.26 billion) and 1.1 million customers.
IBRA has been selling banks in the last two years and will continue to do so as part of its efforts to revive confidence in the banking sector and to generate proceeds for the government to cover the budget deficit.
After managing to sell Bank Central Asia (BCA), Bank Niaga and Bank Danamon successfully, the agency is now under heavy pressure to succeed in the current sale of a majority stake in BII, following its decision last week to postpone the sale of a majority stake in Bank Lippo until next year, due to low bidding prices.