Mitsubishi to acquire stake in Bank Danamon?

BANK - JAKARTA. Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) was said planning to acquire the stake of Asia Financial (Indonesia) Pte in the Indonesian-based Bank Danamon, an official of the Financial Service Authority (OJK) said here on Wednesday.

MUFG was reported to acquire the stake by phases starting with 40 percent, head of the Banking Supervision Department of OJK Aristiadi said.

"Information we have said that first they would acquire the non majority portion," Aristiadi said.

In the second phase, MUFG would wrap up the process of the acquisition of 40 percent stake of Asia Financial (Indonesia) Pte in Bank Danamon, he said.

Asia Financial (Indonesia) Pte, a subsidiary of Singapore's Temasek, already met with Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd (BTMU), which is a subsidiary of MUFG, he said.

Currently BTMU is conducting due diligence study of Bank Danamon, he added.

The process of acquiring minority stake is faster as it would not need fit and proper test, he said.

Currently Bank Danamon is 67.37 percent owned by Asia Financial (Indonesia) Pte, LTd, 6.5 percent by JPMCB-Frankiln Templeton Investment Funds and 25.7 percent by the public.

MUFG is not a new business player in Indonesia. MUFG already owns the majority stake in two banks - Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd (BTMU) and PT Bank Nusantara Parahyangan Tbk.

BTMU has operated for almost 60 years in Indonesia with the status of Foreign Bank Branhc Officer.

Therefore, if BTMU became the holder of the majority shares in Danamon, it has to deal with the regulation of the Central Bank on "single presence policy" prohibiting investors to be majority shareholder in more than one bank.