Bank Mashill delays merger to next year

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed Bank Mashill will postpone its merger plan with three other medium-size banks -- Jayabank International, Bank Artamedia and Bank Ciputra -- until early next year.

Bank Mashill's president Dradjat Bagus Prasetyo said on Friday the action was approved in an extraordinary shareholders meeting on Thursday.

He said the bank was forced to postpone the merger plan to give shareholders enough time to recapitalize the bank to meet government requirements.

"We have to first recapitalize the bank before concluding the merger plan."

The bank announced earlier this month that the merger plan would be concluded later this month.

Bagus said the merger plan was necessary to boost the banks's competitiveness in facing fierce competition in the banking industry.

Under the initial merger deal, Jayabank's shareholders would control 23.67 percent of the merged bank, Bank Artamedia 23.67 percent, Bank Ciputra 11.07 percent and Bank Mashill the remaining 41.59 percent.

The banks also agreed that stakes controlled by Bank Mashill's existing shareholders would be diluted proportionally after the conclusion of the merger early next year.

This means the stake of the main shareholder, PT Mashill Jaya Asia, will be reduced to 15.33 percent in the merged bank from 40.68 percent prior to the merger; Bank Brussels Lambert's stake will be cut to 8.26 percent from 18.10 percent currently; PT Putra Kartawisejati to 3.89 percent from 10.32 percent and the public to 12.12 percent from 30.90 percent.

Bank Mashill, which recorded net profit of Rp 2.35 billion in the first semester this year, is currently 18.10 percent owned by Belgium's Bank Brussels Lambert, 51 percent by the Karta Wijaya family and the rest by the public. (aly)