PRESS ANNOUNCEMENT

Tun Daim Zainuddin and ICB Financial Group Holdings Ltd. have been informed today that they have been selected as the “Highest Bidder” in the sale of 58.41 % stake in PT Bank Bumiputera Indonesia Tbk. by state-owned investment company PT Danareksa. The tender offer for the divestment exercise which closed on Friday, May 14 had attracted three bidders.

Tun Daim Zainuddin, former Finance Minister of Malaysia, is the sole shareholder of ICB Financial Group Holdings Ltd., an investment holding company incorporated in Switzerland. ICB Financial Group Holdings Ltd. is the vehicle through which Tun Daim Zainuddin is consolidating his shareholdings in the various banks he owns in Europe and Africa known as the ICB Banking Group. To date, Tun Daim Zainuddin has set up banks in seven countries, namely, Hungary, Albania, Ghana, Guinea, Tanzania, Mozambique and Sierra Leone and will be opening another bank in The Gambia later this year. In addition, Tun Daim Zainuddin has submitted applications for banking licenses in three other countries.

Tun Daim Zainuddin’s interest in banks started in 1979 when he purchased Malaysian French Bank (then known as Banque Indosuez) from its French owners. In 1984, he acquired a controlling stake in United Malayan Banking Corporation Bhd, then Malaysia’s third largest bank. Upon his appointment as Minister of Finance that same year he had to divest his shareholding in the Bank.

During his retirement, Tun Daim Zainuddin purchased a stake in International Bank Malaysia Bhd (then known as Hock Hua Bank (Sabah) Bhd) in 1997 and once again had to divest his interest on his reappointment as Minister of Finance in 1999.

The acquisition of PT Bank Bumiputera Indonesia is in line with ICB Banking Group’s plan to expand its banking network to Asia. Indonesia was identified as the first country to invest in. The Group made its first investment in Indonesia through SORAK Financial Holdings Pte. Ltd., the consortium formed to acquire PT Bank Internasional Indonesia last year.

The acquisition of PT Bank Bumiputera Indonesia reaffirms the Group’s confidence in the stability and continued growth of the Indonesian economy, and the bright prospects for the future development of the banking industry.

Apart from Indonesia, the Group is actively looking at expanding to other Asian countries.

Issued By:

Harith Harun

General Manager

ICB Global Management Sdn Bhd

Kuala Lumpur

( This article appeared in the September 2004 issue of Malaysian Business magazine. )

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