Business

Tuesday September 16, 2008

Maybank’s appeal over Indon ruling rejected

By YEOW POOI LING


KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd’s (Maybank) request for Badan Pengawas Pasar Modal and Lembaga Keuangan (Bapepam) of Indonesia to reconsider the terms of its acquisition of Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) has been rejected.

Earlier this month, Maybank had written to Bapepam to seek reconsideration for an exemption from the requirements of the new takeover rule, which would compel Maybank to sell down 20% of BII, or to allow Maybank to conduct a partial tender offer up to 80% of BII, which would achieve Bapepam’s objective to achieve 20% public free float.

In a filing to Bursa Malaysia yesterday, Maybank said the Indonesian authority did not allow the request as it would “create a negative precedent to the newly introduced regulation and would undermine the whole fundamental and objective of the new take over rule as well as the credibility of Bapepam’s regulatory function.” Maybank said under the terms of the share sale agreement, if any of the conditions precedent is not fulfilled by Sept 26, the agreement would lapse.

An analyst at a bank-backed brokerage said this stand by Bapepam raised the probability that the BII deal would not proceed.

“The market is likely to be relieved (if the deal is off) as there is no more concern over capital raising, capital strain and execution risk,” she told StarBiz.

“When you pay so much to penetrate a market, you’d have to work even harder to generate the return on investments,” she added. Another analyst said even without Indonesia, Maybank would still continue to perform in its existing markets.

“The deal would have been good for Maybank because of the potential in Indonesia. It’s just too bad that the timing of the new ruling happened during this acquisition,” he said.

The Minority Shareholders Watchdog Group (MSWG) chief executive officer Abdul Wahab Jaafar Sidek, in a press conference yesterday, said MSWG maintained its position, which was against the proposed acquisition as the pricing was too high.

Meanwhile, Maybank has already written off RM483.8mil for the deposit placed for the BII purchase in financial year ended June 30, 2008.

The net loss of the deposit was RM290mil as it had made RM193mil in foreign exchange gains from money placed earlier in Singapore to pay for the entire BII acquisition.

 
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