Australian bank ANZ Group has no plan to buy the Gunawan family's shares in Panin Bank, CEO Alex Thursby said in a press conference Friday. "There is no plan," Thursby said, dismissing rumors ANZ had approached the family to raise its 38 percent stake in Panin. "We're very happy with our partnership today," he added.
The Gunawan family owns a 46 percent stake in Panin, Indonesia's seventh-largest bank by assets as of April 2010, worth Rp 82.41 trillion (US$9.06 billion) in total, according to the central bank.
However, Thursby did not attempt to hide that he would be interested in acquiring the family's shares should the opportunity arise.
"We're always interested," he told The Jakarta Post after the conference, quickly adding that he would like the current partnership to continue.
ANZ has expanded its operations in Indonesia after acquiring the Royal Bank of Scotland's retail, commercial and private banking businesses here - a follow-up to the acquisition of RBS businesses in the Philippines, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Singapore. Asia is ANZ's main focus currently, said Thursby. "We see Asia as a high-growth economy of the world as in the last five years. And we expect that trend to continue for many more years," he said.
Less than two years ago, ANZ Panin Bank - a joint venture of ANZ and Panin, with 85 percent and 15 percent stakes, respectively - started with two branches in Indonesia. Currently it has 28 branches in 11 major cities, including Jakarta and Surabaya, with 900,000 customers.
"In the next year five years we could have 2 million customers," said Thursby, adding that ANZ would face stiff competition in Indonesia.
ANZ has raised its stake at ANZ Panin to 99 percent, subject to regulatory approval, said ANZ Panin President Director Joseph Abraham.
He said this year, ANZ Panin expected lending to expand 20 percent, a double from 9-10 percent booked in 2009 amid the US-led global economic slowdown.
"ANZ focuses *its lending* on natural resources like mining, oil, gas; infrastructure like power plants, domestic manufacturing, state-owned enterprises," he said.
Last year, ANZ Panin had Rp 14.8 trillion in total assets, and Rp 11.7 trillion in total deposits. After acquiring RBS, its total assets increased to Rp 21 trillion, and Rp 16 trillion in total deposits.
Thursby said the bank would sell products customers wanted, "not what they don't want", to boost its businesses here. He also praised the central bank's new set of regulations to guard the financial sector.
