Maybank defers sale of BII share for 5th Time

Maybank has pushed back to June the deadline for it to refloat a 20 percent stake in Bank Internasional Indonesia.

It will be the fifth postponement as the Malaysian bank holds out in search of a decent price for the shares.

An Indonesian regulation requires Maybank to reduce its holding in BII, Indonesia sixth largest bank by assets, to at least 80 percent, from 97.3 percent currently.

“We received the letter from Bapepam-LK on Dec. 27,” Maybank said in a press statement released on Thursday, referring to now-defunct Capital Market and Financial Institutions Supervisory Agency.

From Jan. 1, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) assumed Bapepam-LK’s role.

“We needed additional time to execute the BII shares sale,” Maybank said. The Malaysian lender last year said that it would not sell the BII stake for less than Rp 510 per share, the price it paid to buy the bank in 2008.