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Bloomberg
Australia and New Zealand Banking group Ltd (ANZ) is weighing reviving a stake sale in PT Bank Pan Indonesia,
according to people with knowledge of the matter.
ANZ has started preliminary talks with interested parties including other banks and tycoons in Indonesia, said the people, who asked not to be identified as the process is private. Shares of Panin Bank have more than doubled so far this year, giving the lender a valuation of about $2.6 billion. ANZ’s 38.8% stake in the Indonesian bank is worth about $1 billion.
A revival of the sale would mark at least the third attempt in the past decade by the Melbourne-based bank to unload its stake in Panin Bank. It was in talks to sell that stake to Mizuho Financial Group Inc. in 2013 when new regulations made it more expensive to hold minority overseas investments, Bloomberg News reported at that time. ANZ hired Morgan Stanley to help find a buyer in 2018, people familiar with the matter have said.
Considerations are still at an early stage and there is no guarantee ANZ will proceed with the stake sale, the people said.
A representative for ANZ declined to comment. Selling a stake is the right of shareholders, Panin Bank Chief Executive Officer Herwidayatmo said in a text message in response to a Bloomberg News query. The bank’s management hasn’t received any information on the matter until now, he added.
ANZ first bought into Bank Panin in 1999 and raised its stake in the Indonesian lender to over 38% 10 years later. The Southeast Asian bank is 46% controlled by Indonesia’s Gunawan family, whose reluctance to give a board seat to an incoming investor had stymied ANZ’s earlier negotiations with suitors, Bloomberg News reported.