Bank Niaga to raise paid-up capital to $50.7m

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly-listed Bank Niaga will double its paid- up capital to Rp 115.55 billion (US$50.7 million) by issuing one- to-one bonus shares worth Rp 57.77 billion.

The bank's president, Gunarni Soeworo, told journalists after the company's extraordinary shareholders meeting yesterday that the bonus shares would be issued from the agio, the share price premium obtained during the company's initial public offering in 1989 and limited public offering in 1992.

After the issuance of the bonus shares, Gunarni said the company's paid-up capital will automatically increase to Rp 115.55 billion from the current Rp 57.77 billion.

Yesterday's meeting also endorsed the change of the company's statutes to increase the company's authorized capital to Rp 280 billion from the previous level of Rp 100 billion.

"These changes are to support the development of Bank Niaga in the future and to meet the new paid-up capital requirement of a foreign exchange bank set by Bank Indonesia," Gunarni said.

Bank Indonesia (the central bank) recently raised the minimum paid-up capital for foreign exchange banks to Rp 150 billion from Rp 50 billion. The central bank has given six years to foreign exchange banks to adapt themselves to the new requirement.

Gunarni noted that Bank Niaga's convertible bonds issued in 1992 with a ten year maturity will be convertible on Dec. 23 of this year.

She explained that the terms of the bonds stipulate that the converted shares will be valued at Rp 6,250 and the company will automatically have call option to convert the bonds into shares if the market prices of Bank Niaga shares reach at least 125 percent of the value of the converted shares or Rp 7,812.50.

"If the bonds are converted into Bank Niaga's shares, our paid-up capital will increase by Rp 42 billion to Rp 157 billion, higher than the central bank's requirement," Gunarni said.

Peter B. Stok, Bank Niaga's executive vice president, said if the bonds cannot be converted into the bank's shares, the bank will still have enough time to meet the central bank's requirement on its paid-up capital.

Bank Niaga is 55 percent owned by PT Austindo Teguhjaya, 7.5 percent by Bank Indonesia, six percent by AJB Bumi Putra and the remainder is owned by the public.

According to the bank's condensed financial statement, the bank recorded Rp 27.95 billion in net profits during the first semester of this year, up from Rp 18.03 billion during the same period last year.

The bank recorded total assets of Rp 5.36 trillion as of the end of last June, up from Rp 4.27 trillion in June last year. (rid)