Bank Bira to arrange $1.2b of syndicated loans

Bank Bira to arrange $1.2b of syndicated loans

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly-listed Bank Bira expects to arrange
US$1.2 billion in syndicated loans for local companies this year,
an executive from the bank said yesterday.

Bank Bira's corporate advisor, Parveen Gandhi, said the target
would more than double the syndicated loans of $675 million
arranged by the bank in 1995.

"In the first semester of this year alone, Bank Bira arranged
a total of $600 million in syndicated loans," Gandhi told The
Jakarta Post.

He said he was optimistic that the syndicated loans to be
arranged by his bank would reach the projected $1.2 billion by
the end of this calendar year given the increase in the demand
from local companies.

Gandhi said Bank Bira is currently arranging a syndicated loan
of around $75 million for PT Great Pineapple of the Gunung Sewu
Group and another $25 million for PT Ciputra.

"We hope to sign the agreement on the syndicated loan in
August," he said, adding that most of the syndication members
will be Singapore-based foreign banks.

Early this year, the International Financial Review selected
Bank Bira as one of the top 10 syndicated loan arrangers in
Indonesia during 1995.

Gandhi said that in the first semester of this year, Bank Bira
arranged syndicated loan facilities for 10 domestic companies.
The loan recipients included Medco, Ariawest, Jababeka, Griyamas,
Camintel, Pandu Dian, Pacific Metro and Asia Pulp & Paper
Company, Gandhi said.

He said the bank booked a net profit of Rp 10.7 billion in the
first quarter of this year, far higher than Rp 6.4 billion
registered in the same period of last year.

Gandhi said that profit for 1996 is expected to exceed the
initial projection of around Rp 54 billion due to an expected
increase in the bank's fee-based revenues and the recent sales of
rights shares worth Rp 167 billion.(hen)