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.