The Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) has completed the transaction over majority ownership in Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) after agreeing to a discount offer from the Sorak consortium.

Maybank acquired 55.6 per cent shares in BII on Tuesday (Sept 30) for US$ 1.24 billion (S$1.77 billion) after consortium members, Singapore's Temasek Holdings and South Korea's Kookmin Bank, bowed down to the demand of Malaysia's central bank of lowering the selling price.

In a statement sent to the Malaysia's stock exchange on Wednesday (Oct 1), Maybak said that the consortium offered a discount worth $220.5 million, making the price per share significantly lower to 433 rupiah per share from 510 rupiah that was agreed earlier.

Maybank president and CEO Abdul Wahid Omar said in the statement: "It has been an intensive process to bring this transaction to a close but we are happy that we have all now come to agreement.

"This acquisition expands our presence in Indonesia which we have always recognised as a key market for us."

Earlier in March, Maybank said it would buy the 55.6 per cent stake in BII for $1.5 billion and would offer another $1.2 billion for the rest of the company, valuing the deal at a total $2.7 billion.

Shortly after, the Malaysian central bank intervened by blocking the deal, arguing that the price was too high amid currently volatile condition of the global financial market as a result of liquidity crisis in the US.

Refusing to lowering the price in the interest of minority shareholders, Temasek and Kookmin offered a sweetener in a form of transaction rebate. Temasek offered a rebate worth $164.8 million while no amount had been disclosed from Kookmin.

Despite the rebate, Maybank did not follow through with the acquisition and violated a transaction deadline set on Friday last week.