Abu Dhabi's largest Islamic bank in talks to buy US$1.1 billion stake in Indonesian lender

Abu Dhabi’s largest Islamic bank is in talks to buy a minority stake valued at around US$1.1 billion in Indonesia’s top Islamic lender, Bank Syariah Indonesia, sources said, with an aim to tap into a fast-growing market for such services in South-east Asia.

The potential acquisition of a 15 per cent stake in Bank Syariah Indonesia (BSI) from Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) is one of the options that Abu Dhabi Islamic Bank (ADIB) is considering, said the two sources.

The sources, who have knowledge of the matter, declined to be named as they were not authorised to speak to the media.

ADIB declined to comment. BRI did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

“What we can say is that the information above is in the domain of our shareholders,” state-owned BSI’s corporate secretary Gunawan Hartoyo said in a statement in response to Reuters’ queries.

Discussions and deliberations are in the early stages and there is no guarantee a deal will be finalised, said the sources.

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South-east Asia, a region of 11 countries with more than half a billion people, is a fast-growing market for Islamic banking services. Indonesia, the region’s biggest economy, has one of the world’s biggest Muslim populations.

Indonesia’s sharia financial assets were worth US$163 billion in July last year, up 13 per cent from the same period a year earlier, according to the Islamic Finance Development Report published by Indonesia’s financial services authority (OJK) last year. REUTERS