The controlling shareholder in Bank Pan Indonesia, the Gunawan family, is drawing interest from both European and Asia-Pacific banks keen to buy the family's 46 per cent stake, the bank's deputy chief executive, Roosniati Salihin, told
Reuters.
ANZ owns a 38 stake per cent in the bank and is one of the bidders, Salihin, told the news service.
The Australian bank also trades in Indonesia under its own brand through ANZ Panin.
"We want to be bought by a bank that is really big," Salihin told Reuters.
Reports of the Gunawan family's efforts to drum up a buyer for its stake first emerged in mid-2010.
"It's not that they must or have to (sell) but they're getting proposals," Salihin said.
Panin Bank is reasonably profitable by the standards of Indonesia's banking industry with a return on assets of 1.4 per cent in 2010, based on central bank data.
The ROA on the separate ANZ Panin is half that level and at the low end of profitability of foreign banks in Inonesia.
There are nine foreign banks with larger balance sheets than ANZ's in Indonesia (based on majority ownership). Three are from Singapore: DBS; OCBC and UOB. Two are from Malaysia: CIMB and Maybank.
Among more "global" bank brands vying for the presumed bonanza in Indonesia's under-banked but developing economy are HSBC, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank and Bank of Tokyo.
Most on this list of nine are likely to be looking to take effective control of Panin Bank, if the Gunawans finally do decide to sell.