By Cindy Silviana and Eveline Danubrata
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesian tycoon Tahir said on Monday he is interested in buying all of PT Bank Permata Tbk (JK:BNLI) and merging it with PT Bank Mayapada Internasional Tbk (JK:MAYA), starting with the stake held by Asia-focused lender Standard Chartered Plc's (L:STAN).
Standard Chartered and Indonesian conglomerate PT Astra International Tbk (JK:ASII) each owned 44.8 percent of Permata as of Sept. 30, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Permata shares surged as much as 12.4 percent to the highest in nearly five months on Monday. Nearly 160 million shares were traded, 12.8 times the average full-day volume over the past 30 days.
"Actually we want all of Permata shares," Tahir told Reuters by telephone. "But at the moment the one that is planning to sell is StanChart, so we are targeting that first."
Tahir, who controls Indonesian conglomerate Mayapada Group, said if his acquisition plan succeeds, he intends to merge Permata with Bank Mayapada.
Standard Chartered, Permata and Astra were not immediately available to comment.
In November, Standard Chartered's chief executive Bill Winters branded its results unacceptable after reporting a 6 percent fall in third-quarter income from a year earlier. His plans to overhaul the bank are challenged by the lower income and an investigation by Hong Kong regulators into the bank's role in some unidentified stock market listings.
Traders speculated in April last year that state-controlled PT Bank Negara Indonesia Tbk (JK:BBNI) may buy a stake in Permata, though the lender declined to comment specifically on Permata.
In February, Winters told analysts that it was in discussions with Astra and regulators to possibly merge its branch with Permata. If that failed it could contemplate a sale, he said at the time.