JAKARTA. Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and CIMB Group Holdings Bhd are joining the competition to be the controlling shareholder of PT Bank Pan Indonesia Tbk (PNBN) or Bank Panin, according to 3 insiders quoted by Reuters.

In its latest findings, 2 out of these 3 sources mentioned that OCBC and CIMB have submitted non-binding offerings to ANZ Group Holdings and the Gunawans, who are known to be the major shareholders of Bank Panin.

This non-binding offer is said due by the end of this year.

Since the beginning of this year, until the end of morning session today (11/12), Bank Panin had shown an upturn of 77.88% to IDR 2,010 per share, boosting its market cap to IDR 47.91 trillion.

Should this acquisition take place, both OCBC and CIMB might consolidate Bank Panin to each of its business unit in Indonesia. This follows the domestic banking regulation that mandated a single presence policy, meaning that each controlling shareholder may only own 1 bank, or several banks under consolidation.

Prior to this, Bloomberg also reported that DBS Group Holdings Ltd, as well as two Japanese banking moguls, Mitsubishi UFJ Finansial Group Inc (MUFG) and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group Inc (SMFG), are putting in offerings to be the controller of Bank Panin.

Despite these long-circulating rumours, Bank Panin has yet to release any official comments, so have OCBC, CIMB, MUFG, and SMFG. (KR/ZH)