Bank Bira to pay dividends in August

JAKARTA (JP): PT Bank Indonesia Raya (Bank Bira), a foreign exchange bank listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, plans to distribute 35.50 percent of its 1994 after-tax profit as dividends worth Rp 80 (3.59 U.S. cents) per share.

The bank's president, Frans Limas, said yesterday after a shareholders' meeting that the bank would also issue three bonus shares, each with a face value of Rp 1,000, for every ten existing shares.

He said that the bonus shares, totaling 24 million, would be distributed on Aug. 5, together with the dividend payout.

The bank, which focuses its operations on the cities of Jakarta, Bandung (West Java), Surabaya (East Java) and Medan (North Sumatra), booked a 1994 profit of Rp 18.02 billion, up 395 percent from the Rp 3.64 billion recorded in 1993, Limas said.

He said the bank's total assets reached Rp 1.06 trillion as of last December, up 84 percent from Rp 580.14 billion as of December 1993.

The bank's loan to deposit ratio stood at 90 percent at the end of last year and its capital adequacy ratio at 12.6 percent.

The bank has arranged a syndicated loan worth $50 million for PT Muliakeramik Indahraya, a domestic ceramics company, with Bank Credit Lyonnais Indonesia and Indover Bank of the Netherlands as co-arrangers, Limas said. (32)