Khazanah set to merge Bank Lippo and Bank Niaga

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Khazanah Nasional Bhd., Malaysia's state investment company, plans to merge the company's two Indonesian banks Lippo Bank and Bank Niaga in order to comply with the central bank's ruling.

Bank Lippo said in a statement Thursday the merger plan had been submitted to Bank Indonesia and was the preferred option taken by Khazanah to comply with the central bank's single presence ruling, which prohibits a single party from having a dominant stake in more than one bank.

"In the event that the evaluation of the merger suggests this option would not be financially, operationally or legally viable, Khazanah together with Lippo Bank and Bank Niaga would then revert to BI as soon as practically possible with an alternative action plan, which will allow Khazanah to comply with the single presence ruling," the statement said.

Khazanah has indirect ownership of 93 percent of Bank Lippo through Santubong Investments BV and Greatville Pte Ltd, and an indirect equity interest of about 64 percent in Bank Niaga through Bumiputra-Commerce Holdings's subsidiary CIMB Group.

The ruling also affects Singapore's Temasek, which controls both Bank International Indonesia and Bank Danamon.

Khazanah and Temasek have three options in order to fulfill the regulation; sell stakes in one of the banks, merge the two or put them under a holding company.

The two business groups have to fulfill the single presence policy by 2010. But before full implementation, they have to report which options would be taken to the Indonesian central bank before the year end.

In another development, CIMB-Principal Asset Management Berhad said Thursday it had taken over 99 percent of PT Niaga Aset Manajemen (NAM) for Rp 41.5 billion as part of the consolidation of CIMB's units in Indonesia.

Under the transfer of the ownership agreement signed on Dec. 12, PT Commerce Kapital acquired one percent of NAM, the company said in a statement.

"In order to further consolidate the business into one entity, NAM will absorb the fund management business of PT CIMB-GK Securities Indonesia by the first quarter of this year," the statement said.