Sources said Ridha Wirakusumah, BII's president director and chief executive officer, is quitting to move to Hong Kong where his wife and children are based.
It is not clear which company he is leaving for, if any.
Maybank, when contacted, confirmed that Ridha had tendered his resignation.
| |
"His replacement will be appointed in due course for a smooth transition in leadership to ensure that the progress and growth of BII, so ably led by Ridha for over two years, will continue," a spokesperson told Business Times.
Ridha's departure is a blow to Maybank as BII had, under his leadership, shown significant improvement in recent years.
Analysts said it also raises some concern as to whether this setback may slow the group's growth plans in Indonesia.
Maybank bought BII, Indonesia's eighth largest bank by assets, at a hefty price of about RM8.2 billion in 2008 and Ridha, 47, has been at its helm since March 2009.
"It's a key subsidiary and his (Ridha) is a key position. There is concern it may derail the group's expansion plans," said Choo Swee Kee, chief investment officer at TA Asset Management Bhd, which manages funds of about RM700 million. Its portfolio of stocks includes Maybank.
BII's plans include growing assets by more than a fifth a year through aggressive branch expansion. It wants to have 450 branches by the end of next year from around 330 now. It had about 250 when Maybank first bought into it.
Maybank is currently considering how best to reduce its over 90 per cent stake in BII to 80 per cent to meet the free float requirement. Indonesia's central bank has gi-ven it till year-end to do this.
Before joining BII, Ridha was chief of AIG Consumer Finance for Asia Pacific, based in Hong Kong. Prior to that, he was head of banking for GE Money in Asia and chief of GE Consumer Finance Asia (ex-Japan and China).
No comments:
Post a Comment