Maybank may abandon BII deal: report
It wants to complete purchase without new rulings, says chief exec
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(KUALA LUMPUR) Malaysia's Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) may pull out of a US$2.7 billion acquisition of Bank Internasional Indonesia if Jakarta rejected its appeal to new takeover rules, local media reported last Saturday.
'We remain resolved that we want to pursue this transaction, but obviously, it would have to be without the new rules,' Maybank chief executive Abdul Wahid Omar said in an interview with The Edge financial weekly. 'We can't proceed if the conditions are not conducive,' he said.
The top Malaysian lender has agreed to buy a 55 per cent stake in BII from Singapore's Temasek Holdings and South Korea's Kookmin in March.
But at the end of June, Indonesia introduced new takeover rules that would require Maybank to ensure BII has a public float of 20 per cent within two years. This prompted Bank Negara, Malaysia's central bank, to revoke its approval for the deal, saying that the new rules could lead to material losses for Maybank.
Maybank has appealed to Indonesia's markets regulator Bapepam against the ruling, but Bapepam said last Friday that it would not make any exceptions for Maybank.
Maybank CEO said in the interview that new rules should not apply to a deal struck earlier.
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'I don't think it's fair for anyone to blame it on Maybank or Bank Negara ... the core issue is the new rule (was) introduced and applied on a transaction that was launched in March,' Mr Abdul Wahid said.
In a separate interview with The Star newspaper, he said that Maybank remained committed to Indonesia.
Maybank would lose a deposit of RM480 million (S$200 million) if the issue could not be resolved by Sept 26, the deadline set by the sellers.
But Mr Abdul Wahid said that the actual loss would be RM290 million, after taking into consideration a foreign exchange gain of RM193 million on the Singapore dollar. -- Reuters
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