Riady: Jakarta bungled in stalling DBS deal

[SINGAPORE] The chief executive of one of Indonesia's biggest conglomerates, Lippo Group's James Riady admitted that the Indonesian government made a "big mistake" when it stonewalled Singapore bank DBS Group Holdings' S$7.3 billion takeover of Bank Danamon last year.

"Do I agree with what happened? I absolutely do not. I think it sends a wrong message. Once in a while, governments make mistakes and I think this was one big mistake they made," said Mr Riady at a panel discussion at the Asean Business Council (ABC) forum on Tuesday themed "Leadership and transformation in Asean".

Mr Riady was responding to a question on whether protectionistic policies in some Asean member countries, such as the Indonesian government's move to tweak foreign ownership limits in local banks which led DBS to pull the plug on the deal last year, were standing in the way of Asean aspirations to build a single, unified market.