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AKARTA: The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) officially submitted a letter to Bank Indonesia (BI) last week stating that it would postpone selling its shares of PT Bank Muamalat Tbk, a central bank official says.

BI Islamic Banking Directorate director Mulya E. Siregar said Friday that the postponement was due to a disagreement between IDB and potential investors over the stock price.

“No one has declared their interest in buying Bank Muamalat stocks, most likely because the IDB and the potential buyers have not agreed on the price yet,” Mulya said as quoted by detikfinance.com.

The three majority Bank Muamalat shareholders, namely Boubyan Bank Kuwait, Saudi Arabian Atwill Holdings Limited and IDB, have reportedly planned to sell their shares in Bank Muamalat.

Mulya cited Standard Chartered Bank, OCBC, Saratoga, Qatar Islamic Bank, PT Bank Mandiri Tbk, Para Group and Overseas Chinese Banking as among the investors who had expressed interest in acquiring the bank.

However, several potential investors have also stepped away from the table, including PT Bank Permata Tbk. and Para Group.

As of June, Bank Muamalat’s assets had reached Rp 24 trillion (US$ 2.8 billion), up 41.17 percent from to Rp 17 trillion at the end of 2010.