Was this the cheapest “bank sale” in the history of the world?
I refer to the article “Japan’s MUFG may succeed where DBS didn’t” (Straits Times, Dec 28).
It states that “On Tuesday, MUFG said it had agreed to buy an initial 19.9 per cent stake from Temasek Holdings and units affiliated with Singapore’s state investor.
The Japanese bank then plans to next year increase its interest to the 40 per cent foreign-investor limit, before applying to buy out all of the Temasek group’s holdings.
It seems this time, the Japanese may get lucky where the Singaporeans lucked out.”
In this connection – arguably, the real “biggie” historically – for bank ownership – may be the sale of POSBank to Temasek at a price of only $1.6 billion – without even an independent valuation or tender.
In 1998, DBS Bank bought POSBank (which had four million customers) from the Singapore Government for $1.6 billion, a 37% premium over its net tangible asset value.
A real bargain indeed!
Leong Sze Hian