Three bidding for stake in Indon bank

JAKARTA: PT Bank Panin, ICB Financial Group Holdings Ltd and AJB Bumiputera 1912 have put in separate bids for a 58.41% stake in PT Bank Bumiputera, according to a published announcement from the target bank. 

PT Cipta Usaha Citra Dana, PT Reksatama Dinamika, PT Reksasentosa Dinamika and PT Danareksa currently hold the 58.41%, the Bumiputera announcement said. 

Bumiputera said that AJB Bumiputera, which already holds a 41.02% stake in the bank, was interested in raising its interest to improve its services and competitiveness. 

PT Bank Panin said it intended to acquire the stake as it wanted synergy from the move, while Swiss-based ICB's reason for making the bid was that it wanted to expand its network to Asia. 

ICB Financial was set up last year to consolidate Malaysian businessman Tun Daim Zainuddin's ownership of several banks under the ICB Bank Group. 

The small Bank Bumiputera has assets of 3.25 trillion rupiah. It posted a 2003 net profit of 28.29 billion rupiah, up from 18.85 billion in 2002, on net interest income of 151.97 billion, against 86.57 billion previously. 

Bank Panin's bid for Bumiputera is its third attempt to make an acquisition after failing in two previous tries to take over banks from now defunct Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (Ibra). 

It lost out to the Sorak consortium, led by Kookmin Bank of South Korea, in a bid for a majority stake in PT Bank Internasional Indonesia and to Malaysia's Commerce-Asset Holdings Bhd for a majority stake in PT Bank Niaga. 

Bank Panin also said it was open to joining any consortium to bid for PT Bank Permata, in which Ibra plans to divest 71% stake pending parliament approval. – AFX-Asia

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