This year’s M&As started with Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) increasing its stake in private lender Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Negara (BTPN). SMBC then merged its Indonesian unit with BTPN in January.

Another Japanese lending giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) took over Bank Danamon’s and Bank Nusantara Parahyangan’s (BNP) shares from the public, a corporate action known as a tender offer.

Although market players had been expecting the transaction as discussions on the acquisition had been ongoing since late 2017, they did not expect the sum of money the Japanese financial heavyweights poured in to acquire Danamon and BNP.

The tender offer of both banks totaled around Rp 52.58 trillion (US$3.78 billion) in April as MUFG considered buying both banks’ shares at premium prices. The transaction was the biggest recorded on the Indonesia Stock Exchange this year, making it the local bourse’s highest-ever foreign buy.

Bank Danamon president director Yasushi Itagaki told The Jakarta Post earlier this year that the reason for MUFG’s aggressiveness in acquiring local banks was that Indonesia was an attractive country to invest in as the country had a fast-growing middle class and low banking penetration.

Indonesia’s banking sector attractiveness seemed to have also lured South Korean investors. South Korea’s financial services firm Apro Financial merged in July Indonesian small-sized lenders Bank Dinar and Bank Oke.