Bank Bira offers 20 million shares to the public

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Bira, one of Indonesia's oldest private banks, will offer 25 percent of its enlarged 80 million shares to the public in early July.

The bank's president, Frans Limas, said in a presentation for securities analysts and brokers yesterday that the bank's 20 million new shares, each with a nominal value of Rp 1,000, will be sold at about Rp 2,300 to Rp 2,500 each.

He said the bank is still waiting for approval from the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) on sales of the shares and their listing on the Jakarta and Surabaya stock exchanges.

The bank expects to generate around Rp 50 billion from the share issuance, all of which will be used to increase its productive assets, he said.

Limas said Bank Bira, which has 29 branches, held total assets of Rp 639.5 billion as of May. Its operating profit quadrupled to Rp 8.2 billion in 1993/94 from Rp 2.05 billion in the previous year.

He refused to specify the bank's after-tax profit.

Bank Bira is 76 percent owned by PT Arya Teladan Sakti, 22 percent by PT Aman Lintas Ladangartha and two percent by Lukman Iskandar, a commissioner of the bank. (09)