The planned US$7.3 billion acquisition by Singapore DBS Group Holding of publicly listed Bank Danamon should be one more confidence-building step in Indonesia’s long-term economic advance, but equally it could turn into an ugly political controversy.
DBS chief executive officer Piyush Gupta made the business plan fully transparent in line with the best practices of good corporate governance by announcing it at a news conference here last week, but he has unintentionally set off what could be weeks of pointless political debates, whipped up by inordinately nationalistic grandstanding. Full story
