Maybank buys 55.6 pct of BII for $1.24 bln

Malaysia's Maybank has completed the acquisition of a 55.6 percent stake in Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) for 4.26 billion ringgit ($1.24 billion), the lender said on Tuesday.

The transaction was completed on Tuesday after BII's majority shareholders Fullerton Financial Holdings, a unit of Singapore's Temasek [TEM.UL], and South Korea's Kookmin Bank agreed to provide a rebate of 758.9 million ringgit on the price previously agreed, Maybank said in a statement.

Last week, Malaysia's central bank told the state-owned Maybank to lower the price of its bid for BII, which pulled BII shares down by more than a third on Friday.

Maybank agreed in March to pay $1.5 billion, or 510 rupiah per share, for a the BII stake to the two shareholders, and to make a tender offer for the remaining shares, putting the total price tag at $2.7 billion.

Several analysts criticised the deal at the time, saying the Malaysian bank had overpaid for BII.