Bank BCA appoints new independent commissioners
Bank BCA appoints new independent commissioners
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Shareholders of Bank Central Asia (BCA) have appointed three
new independent commissioners in a move some said reflected the
pinnacle of an internal dispute between the outgoing independent
commissioners and key shareholder FarIndo Investment.
The shareholders agreed during their annual meeting on
Wednesday to appoint Cyrillus Harinowo, a former candidate for
the governorship of Bank Indonesia, Renaldo Hector Barros, a
former employee of Citybank, and Tony Kusnadi, a BCA employee, as
independent commissioners for the largest private bank in the
country.
They replaced outgoing independent commissioners Winarto and
Suyono Sadirun, who both resigned recently, and Edwin Gerungan,
who was dismissed hours before the shareholders meeting.
Analysts said the dismissal of the three independent
commissioners was due to their firm stand against the domination
of the Hartono brothers -- Bambang and Budi of cigarette maker
Djarum group -- in the decision-making process in the bank.
Through Alaerka Investment, the Hartono brothers secured a 10
percent stake in FarIndo Investment.
As reported by the Koran Tempo daily, Djarum group was
suspected of being behind a tussle between BCA directors and
commissioners over the bank's efforts to salvage Bank Multicor.
The public has long been curious about who is actually behind
the wheel in BCA, the Mauritius-based investment vehicle Farallon
Group, which owns a 90 percent stake in FarIndo, or the Djarum
Group.
State Minister/Head of the National Development Planning
Board Kwik Kian Gie recently voiced his disgust, saying he knew
from the very beginning that the Djarum owners were in fact
behind Farallon.
The news media have also reported that the management of BCA
has many times been summoned by the Djarum owners to explain
various policies it had taken.
Last year, after going through a public sale, the Indonesian
Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) sold 52.24 percent of BCA shares
to FarIndo Investment.
As the bank with the largest number of customers in Indonesia,
BCA was the first priority for the government for the injection
of trillions of rupiah in recapitalization funds to help cope
with mass bank runs during the height of the 1997-1998 financial
crisis.
BCA president D.E. Setijoso, however, denied that the
reshuffle of the board of commissioners had anything to do with
interference from the owners of Djarum.
"Farallon assigns only those who are professional for
positions both on the board of commissioners and board of
directors," he told reporters during a press briefing after the
shareholders meeting.
Setijoso also said that the annual meeting had decided to pay
a dividend of Rp 225 per share to shareholders.
BCA has earmarked about Rp 1.3 trillion of its net profit for
the dividend payment. This accounts for 53.7 percent of the
bank's net profit in 2002.
With total assets of Rp 117 trillion, BCA is the largest
private bank in the country.