Bank Buana to be listed on NYSE in 2003

Bank Buana to be listed on NYSE in 2003

Bank Buana Indonesia has obtained approval from the U.S. Securities and Stock Exchange Commission to sell its shares on the New York Stock Exchange in the first quarter of 2003, in what will be the first listing of American Depositary Receipts by a local bank.

"We hope the listing will help boost liquidity of our shares traded on the Jakarta Stock Exchange," Pardi Kendy, told Dow Jones Newswires Tuesday.

The mid-sized bank launched an initial public offering in Indonesia this year, but trading on its shares has been illiquid with only 26 percent of shares being held by public investors.

A generous 30 percent annual dividend that the bank has been paying to shareholders over the last two years is also giving investors another reason to hold on to their shares for the long term.

Bank Buana is one of the few local banks that emerged relatively unscathed from the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis. In the first nine months of 2002, it posted a net profit of Rp 230.90 billion (US$26 million), up from Rp 177.23 billion in the same period a year ago. -- Dow Jones