Bakrie Finance Corporation to raise stake in Bank Nusa

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed PT Bakrie Finance Corporation (BFC) plans to increase its stake in PT Bank Nusa Internasional to 82 percent from 47 percent as part of its restructuring program.

The director of BFC's subsidiary PT Swadinamika Bakrie Finance, Tito D. Suherto, said yesterday BFC would buy the 35 percent stake, about 625.61 million shares, from PT Daya Sarana Pratama.

"The plan to increase the stake in Bank Nusa started in 1995, when our shareholders gave a mandate to acquire 22 percent of the company," Tito said after the company's shareholder annual and extraordinary meeting.

"But we could not acquire the shares then because it would violate finance ministerial regulation No. 606/1995," he said.

The regulation stated that a multifinance firm could not own more than 25 percent of any company's equity and that any stake in another firm could not exceed 40 percent of its own capital.

Bakrie Finance, formerly a multifinance company, became the holding company of Bakrie Group's financial services last year as part of the business group's restructuring.

At yesterday meeting, BFC's shareholders agreed to acquire another 13 percent in Bank Nusa, raising the stake it will buy to 35 percent.

The purchase will increase BFC's stake to 82 percent, he said.

He said the proposal to buy the stake is waiting for approval from the central bank and the finance minister.

Tito said if the acquisition plan could be carried out this year, BFC's assets would rise to Rp 3.2 trillion this year from Rp 987.9 billion last year.

The company's net profit would increase from Rp 11.2 billion last year to Rp 30 billion this year.

Earlier this year, the company raised its stake in PT Asuransi Jiwa Centris (Centris Life) to 89.86 percent from 19 percent, and changed Centris' name to PT Asuransi Jiwa Bakrie.

It also raised it stake in PT Swadinamika Multi Finance to 91.85 percent from 45.39 percent.

Swadinamika, whose name was then changed to PT Swadinamika Bakrie Finance, became BFC's subsidiary for handling financial activities.

The value of the company's assets rose 25 percent to Rp 987.9 billion last year.

At yesterday's meeting, shareholders agreed to distribute Rp 5.21 billion in dividend payments for the 1996 financial year. It will pay a dividend of Rp 31 a share. (das)