a Malaysia for Malaysians

Indonesian regulators said that Maybank had to sell down its stake by 20% ro at least 300 public shareholders within 2 years. Bank Negara followed up by revoking its approval for the proposed acquisition which was given earlier under Section 29 of the Banking and Financial Institutions Act 1989.

It was widely speculated that Zeti threw in her resignation letter as she had opposed the deal in the first place. Apparently something about being railroaded by the powers to be was deemed as a sensible enough reason to resign, of course it is. Of course all this is just speculation at best. Zeti is still at her job. It is interesting to note how quickly Bank Negara squashed the approval following the Indonesian regulators’ new ruling. Strike one for Zeti. Don’t play play. People need to accord proper professionalism to people appointed to their jobs. Don’t listen, now can write a pamphlet on “How To Lose RM480m in 2 Months”.

For Maybank and Khazanah or Ministry of Finance to even try to put up the potential loss by withdrawing from the deal, as a reason to pursue the deal, is nothing short of flying cows (absurd). Loss means loss la.

Technically, I think Maybank has a very strong case to get back its deposit because tacit approval was given and after the horse has bolted, the Indonesian authorities came out with new rulings which is quite unfair. The 10% deposit of RM480m was paid to Fullerton Financial Holdings. I sincerely hope that Maybank had decent advisors in that the deposit is refundable if Maybank was unable to get all the necessary regulatory approvals. If they didn’t, Maybank deserves to be in the tank. The advisors ought to be shot. Still Fullerton is likely to refund the deposit as it does not want to anger Malaysian side as there are more deals with Malaysian parties in the future - but then Temasek has managed to piss off Thailand and Indonesian authorities in the past few years, including Malaysia into the steamboat might not be far fetched at all.

But that does not concern Bank Negara. It was reported that Maybank had a meeting with Indonesia’s Capital Market Supervisory Agency to ask for a waiver from the new ruling but its appeal was rejected last week. Maybe we should offer Siti Nurhaliza to be admitted as an Indonesian citizen, I think they would definitely change their minds then (Indonesians love Siti more than Malaysians do!).

I think Zeti is smiling, I will also smile alongside with her.

source: http://malaysiafinance.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-to-lose-rm480-in-2-months.html