|
JAKARTA - SINGAPORE'S Temasek Holdings wants to merge Indonesia's Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) and Bank Danamon pending approval from banking regulatory bodies here, BII said on Thursday.
Bank Danamon is the fourth largest bank in Indonesia by assets while BII is the sixth largest.
The Singapore government's investment arm, through Fullerton Financial Holdings (FFH), is the majority shareholder of Sorak Consortium. Sorak owns 56.13 per cent of BII shares and Temasek recently raised its stake in Sorak to 75 per cent from 50 per cent.
The Singapore government's investment arm also owns 85 per cent of Asia Financial (Indonesia), which holds 68.87 per cent of Bank Danamon.
'FFH's current preferred option is to explore a merger between BII and Danamon subject to further evaluation and clearance from the regulatory bodies,' BII said in a statement.
Its key shareholder has submitted an ownership structure adjustment plan to Bank Indonesia to comply with the central bank's single presence policy, BII said. Under the policy, a bank owner may only own or control one bank.
The regulation will take effect by the end of 2010 but the central bank has set an end-2007 deadline for bank owners to submit a proposal to resolve any shareholding issues they may have. -- AFP
| 
