UOB completes Buana stake purchase

UOB completes Buana stake purchase

JAKARTA: United Overseas Bank (UOB) Ltd., Singapore's second- largest lender, completed the purchase of an additional 30 percent stake in PT Bank Buana Indonesia for Rp 1.65 trillion (US$162.9 million).

The Singapore lender bought 1.73 billion shares in Bank Buana, Indonesia's 13th-largest lender, at Rp 954 apiece, lifting its stake to 53 percent. The shares were unchanged at Rp 950 as of 1:48 p.m. in Jakarta.

"The transaction is done," Pardi Kendy, Buana's treasury director, said in a telephone interview on Friday. "Bank Buana gave the shares and United Overseas gave the money today."

The additional stake purchase will give UOB greater access to a market that's 10 times the size of Singapore and Malaysia combined. Indonesian lenders are expected to benefit from rising borrowing by companies and consumers in an economy forecast by the government to expand as much as 6 percent this year, after a 5.1 percent gain in 2004. -- Bloomberg