JAKARTA ~ Bank of India will buy a majority stake in Indonesia’s Bank Swadesi early next year, central bank deputy governor Siti Fadjrijah said.

“The SPA (sales and purchase agreement) with Swadesi is likely to be done in the first quarter of 2007,” Fadjrijah told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar here, the state Antara news agency said.

She said Bank of India was targeting a stake of more than 50 percent but less than 100 percent as it “still wanted to maintain a local partner.”

Bank Swadesi is a small retail bank listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

The two top commissioners of the bank are ethnic Indians. Two Indonesian private companies each hold a 39.52-percent stake while another 9.48 percent is held by another private company and the public owns the rest.

It would be the second purchase of an Indonesian bank by an Indian one after the State Bank of India bought a 76-percent stake in Bank Indomonex last month.