CANBERRA: Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ) is planning to sell its 38.9 per cent stake in Indonesia medium lender PT Bank Pan Indonesia (PNBN), it said in a public statement.
ANZ is seeking to sell its stake in the bank, also known as Panin Bank, after Australian regulators introduced rules in 2013 requiring banks to subtract the entire value of overseas minority investments from Tier 1 capital. In 2013, Japan’s Mizuho Financial Group Inc. has shown their interest to buy the stake but no final decision has been taken until now.
Apart from holding stakes in Panin Bank, ANZ Ltd is also operating in Indonesia through PT Bank ANZ Indonesia. ANZ Ltd controls 99 per cent shares in the bank.
ANZ owns a combined A$4.4 billion ($3.4 billion) of stock in four Asian lenders at the end of September, according to its latest annual report. A $1 billion addition to capital would increase ANZ’s common equity Tier 1 ratio stood at 8.4 per cent at the end of December, report says.
The need for higher equity ratios will drive ANZ to sell its minority stakes in two or three Asian banks over the next couple of years. Beside Bank Panin, in the Asian region, ANZ owns 24 per cent of Malaysia’s AmBank Group, 14 per cent of China’s Bank of Tianjin.co Ltd, and a 20 per cent holding in the Shanghai Rural and Commercial Bank Co Ltd.
Chief executive officer Mike Smith said in a statement, the bank is seeking to double the profit contribution of its businesses outside of Australia and New Zealand to as much as 30 per cent by 2017.
President director of Bank Panin Herwidayatmo was quoted by a local media as saying that the bank’s management was aware that ANZ was looking to divest its shares in the bank. He said it is up to the shareholder, ANZ, to sell its stakes to any party without the consent of other key shareholders. Bank Panin, he said, has yet to be formally notified by ANZ.
Fadjar Gunawan, president director of PT Panin Dai-Ichi Life and son of patriarch Mu’min Gunawan together with ANZ controls Bank Pan Indonesia. Gunawan family owns 46 per cent of Bank Panin and public around 15 per cent.
ANZ has already exited stakes in Vietnam, with 17.5 per cent stake in Saigon Securities sold last year and its 9.6 per cent stake in Vietnam’s Sacombank offloaded in 2012.
Meanwhile, ANZ said that Martin Hanrahan had been appointed global head of corporate advisory, where he will oversee the bank’s mergers and acquisitions services to clients of the international and institutional banking division. He will report to ANZ’s managing director of global loans and advisory, Christina Tonkin.
