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rivate equity firm TPG Capital has sold a 17.5 percent stake in PT Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional Tbk (BTPN) to an affiliate of Japan'€™s Sumitomo Corp. for Rp 5.93 trillion (US$461.8 million), according to Reuters.

TPG Nusantara sold 1.02 billion BTPN shares at Rp 5,800 apiece, a 43 percent premium to the last traded price, to Summit Global Capital Management, BTPN said in a filing to the Indonesian stock exchange on Wednesday.

TPG still holds 8.38 percent, the Indonesian bank said. The private equity firm initially bought 71.6 percent of BTPN for around $195 million in 2008.

In a separate statement, Sumitomo Corp. said it had bought the 17.5 percent stake in BTPN through an affiliate, raising its ownership in the Indonesian bank to 20 percent, Reuters added.

Sumitomo Corp. said that Indonesia is one of the most important markets for the group. '€œAs part of its long-term approach, Sumitomo Corporation is investing in Indonesia'€™s financial sector, particularly BTPN, which focuses on the mass market,'€ it said.

In 2013, Japan'€™s Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc agreed to buy 40 percent of BTPN for $1.5 billion.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) concluded the purchase of a 40 percent stake of BTPN in March last year. Sumitomo'€™s ownership in BTPN has now increased from 24.26 percent to 40 percent.

The Japanese company first bought a stake of 24.3 percent in BTPN from TPG Nusantara S.a.r.l. for Rp 6,500 (57 US cents) a share in May 2013, with the intent to increase its stake to 40 percent.

SMBC is a subsidiary of bank holding and financial services company Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc. and the 40 percent purchase of BTPN has been its biggest purchase of a foreign financial firm.

Following the acquisition, the Financial Services Authority (OJK) expected that BTPN and Bank Sumitomo Mitsui Indonesia, two subsidiaries of Japan'€™s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), would merge to strengthen their presence in the country.

The regulator said it would ask BTPN and Bank Sumitomo Mitsui Indonesia to include the consolidation arrangement in their 2015 banking business plan (RBB), following an earlier consolidation commitment by SMBC.

Neither BTPN nor Sumitomo Mitsui Indonesia put the consolidation plan in their RBBs for 2014.

SMBC now has a 98.5 percent stake in Sumitomo Mitsui Indonesia. The remaining shares are held by private lender Bank Central Asia (BCA) and state-owned lender Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), with 1 percent and 0.5 percent,
respectively.

Unlike BTPN, Sumitomo Mitsui Indonesia currently channels most of its loans to corporate customers. It also provides trade financing for export and import activities, and offers cash management services.