75 brokers report 1995 losses

JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) disclosed yesterday that the number of money-losing securities companies on the capital market increased to 75 last year from 70 in 1994.

"The number of securities firms that booked profits declined from 119 companies in 1994 to only 103 last year," a director of the JSX, Mas Achmad Daniri, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

He said the JSX has received financial reports from 178 of the 197 member securities companies. Three of the 19 securities companies which have not submitted reports have different financial years, and the remaining 16 companies were inactive during the entire year.

"It's positive that the profits recorded by the 103 companies in 1995 reached Rp 112.5 billion, slightly higher than the Rp 108.7 billion booked by the 119 firms in 1994," Daniri said.

He denied that local securities firms might have failed to compete with joint venture companies last year.

"Some joint venture companies also suffered losses last year," he contended, "but it's not fair to disclose their names because they are not public companies."

"I would say that it's not true that local companies are weaker than joint ventures. Local companies like Bomar Securities or Mashill Securities have also been very active," he said.

Daniri said the move to the new building in the Sudirman central business district might have forced many securities companies to spend more on rent.

A director of PT Sigma Batara, Ignasius Yonan, however, said tighter competition among securities companies was the main reason for the losses.

"I would say that it's natural selection that more and more small companies will suffer losses because they fail to compete with the bigger ones," Ignasius said.

He argued that the increased transaction value should mean that more companies booked profits.

The JSX last year recorded total transactions of Rp 32 trillion, about 26 percent higher the Rp 25 trillion in 1994.

Sales volume also rose from five billion shares in 1994 to 10 billion shares last year.

"It implies that the market activities were driven by some major securities companies. I believe that the situation will not change, meaning that there will be more companies reporting losses this year," Yonan told the Post. (08)