Analysts have applauded Indonesia's PT Bank Danamon's sale of its entire 25% stake in local joint-venture securities firm PT DBS Vickers Securities Indonesia to a number of financial institutions for Rp25.7 billion $2.7 million last week.
Proceeds from the divestment will boost earnings and debt service capability, as well as impart upside risk to our full-year forecast, says Brett Williams, a Singapore-based analyst at ING. We interpret the sale, as we did for the divestment in PT Korea Exchange Bank in August, as a commitment to and strategic focus on its core domestic lending franchise.
Indeed, that is precisely what Bank Danamon President Sebastian Paredes...