ANZ Banking Group opened a second offer to divest its 39% shares in PT Bank Pan Indonesia Tbk (PNBN). Management claims they have are in no rush to complete the sale of its assets in Asia worth US$ 3 billion, including in Indonesia. This decision shows that ANZ have not found prospective and feasible investors.
Asset sales are carried out to comply with Australian banking authorities to increase capital reserves. “Australian banks are always paying attention to capital. ANZ cannot put its entire capital in the retail banking so that if there is another way to create value, we are obliged to do so. So,we allocate capital for institutional banking business,” said Shayne Elliott, CEO of ANZ, as quoted by the Financial Times.
Elliott said that ANZ’s shares in a number of financial institutions in Asia is a product of the pre-crisis financial and has passed the best time of purchase so the company will sell its stake gradually. “There’s no need to rush because (investments in Asia) is still good and profitable,” said Elliott.
In ANZ’s first phase of stock offering of Panin Bank, some investors who are interested are the Fubon Financial Holding Co. Ltd. (Taiwan), Mizuho Financial Group Inc. (Japan), and Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (Spain). The total worth of the 39% stake in Panin is estimated to reach US$ 608 million. The first stage deal was stalled because it has not reached an agreement with another shareholder, namely Gunawan family which has a 46.5% stake in Bank Panin. (*)
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