Indonesia Bank Kesawan says QNB to take 82 pct stake

Indonesia Bank Kesawan says QNB to take 82 pct stake

The bank plans to raise 730 billion rupiah ($81.72 million) in a rights issue which would lead to Qatar National Bank taking a controlling stake.

October 1, 2010 8:38 by Reuters

PT Bank Kesawan , a small Indonesian lender, said on Thursday it plans to raise 730 billion rupiah ($81.72 million) in a rights issue which would lead to Qatar National Bank taking a controlling stake.

Gatot Siswoyo, Bank Kesawan’s chief executive officer, told Reuters that QNB would be the standby buyer for the rights offering and would end up with an 82 percent stake in the Indonesian lender.

“We expect to get regulator and shareholders approval by December,” Siswoyo said, adding that QNB is committed to injecting more capital after the offering so that Kesawan can expand its lending to small and medium-sized businesses.

The rights issue is expected to close in the first quarter of 2011, QNB, Qatar’s largest lender by market capitalisation, said in a statement earlier this month.

Bank Kesawan, which has a market capitalisation of $55 million, operates 33 branches throughout Indonesia, with total assets of about 2.3 trillion rupiah.

Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, is keen to develop its market for sharia investment products and attract more investment from the Middle East.

QNB is 50 percent owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund, Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and has been expanding abroad, with operations in Syria, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Switzerland.

It opened its first branch in Mauritania recently and obtained regulatory approval to operate in Lebanon, the bank said.

(Reporting by Fathiya Dahrul; Writing by Janeman Latul; Editing by Sara Webb)