GUAN ENG ATTACKS MAYBANK DEAL

GEORGETOWN, Oct 11 — The DAP has criticised the acquisition of PT Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) by Maybank, stating that the money could have been given as cheap loans to the public instead.

"Maybank could have given out cheap loans of RM8.25 billion to the public to face the global financial crisis rather than waste it on acquiring BII and suffering almost immediate losses of RM 4 billion," DAP scretary-general Lim Guan Eng said.

"We are facing a global financial crisis that will have an impact on the livelihood of ordinary Malaysians. Why not help tens of thousands of businesses and hundreds of thousands of ordinary Malaysians instead of buying one bank?"

In a media statement, the Penang chief minister pointed out that Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd and South Korea's Kookmin Bank were so desperate to sell their 56 per cent stake in BII that they were willing to give a further 15 per cent discount of RM758.9 million despite the deal having already been closed.

"No wonder as Maybank bought at a price that is more than 65 per cent higher than the prevailing market price or 4.3 times BII's book value compared to the current market valuation of Indonesian banks at a maximum of 2.7 times.

"Why not cut losses, lose face by admitting its mistake and forfeit its RM483 million deposit? Instead Maybank decided to proceed with spending RM8.25 billion to acquire a bank that nobody wanted," he explained.

The deal had come under fire from various quarters even though Finance Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had said the deal was a positive one.

The first day of trading after the deal saw Maybank's shares close 30 sen lower at RM6.60, a five-year low.

The statement also said that DAP regretted that no leader from the Barisan Nasional government highlighted this controversy.

"The public is highly suspicious of such shady deals as they remember Proton Holdings Bhd selling MV Augusta for one euro when it had bought it for 70 million euros, resulting in total losses of RM500 million.

"It is such shady deals that have crippled Malaysia's anti-corruption efforts causing Malaysia to tumble in the rankings of the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index of No. 37 in 2003 to No. 47 this year," the statement claimed. - TMI