Bank Niaga to open two more branches

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed Bank Niaga is including another Asian country in its planned opening of two new branches this year, its president said here yesterday.

Gunarni Soeworo did not reveal the name of the country, but said the other second would be in Cilegon, West Java.

The openings will increase total branches to 64.

Bank Niaga will be better equipped to cater to the growing demand for banking services in the country through the move, she said, adding that the bank also planned to open six more subbranch offices this year.

All of the subbranches will be located in Jakarta except one in Bandung. She did not disclose the total investment.

"The investment cost varies from one place to another," she said after the bank's annual shareholders meeting.

She said the bank planned to invest around Rp 60 billion (about US$25 million) between this year and 1999 to improve the bank's transaction system.

"This will enable our customers to make any transaction through our ATMs."

Gunarni said the bank targeted Rp 136 billion in net profit this year, a 38 percent increase from last year's Rp 97.97 billion.

The bank posted net profit of Rp 31.9 billion in the first quarter of this year, 9 percent higher than the projected Rp 29 billion, she added.

Around Rp 9.79 billion (10 percent) of last year's net profit would be used as reserve, Rp 29 billion as dividend and the remaining 58.84 billion as retained earnings.

She said Bank Niaga, which had total assets of Rp 7.87 trillion as December 1996, provided credit worth Rp 5.80 trillion in the same period.

Most of the credit was given to corporate buyers but "credit for the individual sector is expected to increase in coming years," she said.

Bank Niaga, which had a capital adequacy ratio (CAR) of 10.8 percent as of December 1996, collected public funds worth Rp 5.67 trillion last year. (09)