UPDATE 1-Indonesia's Sinar Mas to buy Bank Century

(Recasts with confirmation)

JAKARTA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group will acquire an up to 70 percent stake in PT Bank Century Tbk (BCIC.JK), the bank said on Monday.

Bank Century did not give details on the deal but newspaper Investor Daily reported Sinar Mas Multiartha Tbk (SMMA.JK), a financial unit of the group, was expected to pay as much as 982.3 billion rupiah ($85.22 million) for the stake.

Deddy Triyana, corporate secretary of Bank Century, said in a statement PT Century Mega Investindo and First Gulf Asia Holdings Ltd as majority shareholders of PT Bank Century Tbk had signed a letter of intent with PT Sinar Mas Multiartha Tbk (SMMA.JK) to acquire up to 70 percent of the bank's share capital.

Bank Century is a relatively small bank with total assests of 15 trillion rupiah.

Indonesia's central bank said last week Bank Century was having problems in settling interbank payments due to technical problems, but said the issue was no threat to the country's banking system.

Bank Indonesia said operations in Bank Century had returned to normal on Friday.

Indonesia's central bank has been trying to consolidate the country's 130 banks by promoting mergers and acquisitions. ($1 = 11,525 rupiah) (Reporting by Tyagita Silka; Writing by Harry Suhartono, Editing by Sugita Katyal)