Share price of Bank Muamalat viewed too expensive

JAKARTA: State-Owned Banks were obligated to participate in a shares issuance of PT Bank Muamalat Indonesia tbk, previously. However, now they had reigned one by one considering on too expensive price of shares.Previously, the shares issuance of the bank had been discussed between State-Owned Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar with the management of PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia. When reviewing the issuance, the offered price of shares is too expensive, he said, yesterday.The shares price is too high or 3.2 times of share price ratio against price to earnings ratio (PER). Whereas, PER level of similar companies is staying within of 2 to 2.2 times.In addition, the high offered price has erased interest of state-owned banks to participate in the tender offer, even though they had confirmed to acquire the bank initially.Besides BRI, PT Bank Mandiri Tbk had also resigned from the share issuance. Bank Indonesia, Indonesias central bank, previously has mentioned at least 8 investors to take a part in the share issuance of Bank Muamalat, the first sharia bank in Indonesia.Even, Qatar Islamic Bank also came out from the tender process considering on the very high expected price, and so Singapore Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) did. (13) (t01/msw)