Bank PDFCI's divestment in Bank Papan for profit

JAKARTA (JP): The president of Bank PDFCI, Bistok Hutasoit, said yesterday that the sale of its 11.13 percent stake in Bank Papan Sejahtera was purely based on a business reason.

"Bank PDFCI earned a lot of profit by selling its shares in Bank Papan," Bistok said.

He said that the 11.13 percent stake represented 8.6 million shares.

President of PT Steady Safe, a public transportation firm listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, Jopie Widjaya, recently reported acquiring a 51 percent stake in Bank Papan through transactions on the Jakarta and Surabaya exchanges at Rp 3,000 per share, slightly lower than the then price of Rp 3,300 per share.

Bistok said the sale of the Bank Papan shares was in accordance with existing procedures.

"We have let the Capital Market Supervisory Agency know about the selling of our shares in BPS. So there's no problem," he said.

He added that Bank PDFCI had offered its Bank Papan shares to Astek, Taspen and foreign institutions long before their sale, which occurred over a period of time starting last October.

Bank PDFCI is 12.45 percent owned by PT Bahana Investa Graha, 11.62 percent by Bank Indonesia, 9.77 percent by Nippon Credit Bank Ltd. of Japan, nine percent by PT Aditarina Arthaniaga, 7.58 percent by AJB Bumiputera 1912, 5.72 percent by PT Pan Indonesia Bank Ltd., 4.96 percent by Deutsche Investitions-Und Entwicklungsgesellschaft, mbH of Germany and the remainder by a number of parties.

Bank PDFCI's net profit increased by 10 percent to Rp 15.16 billion in 1994 from Rp 13.8 billion in 1993, while its total assets rose 20 percent to Rp 1.29 trillion as of last December from Rp 1.07 trillion as of the end of 1993.

"We expect that in 1995 we will gain Rp 21 billion in net profit," Bistok said "We recorded a profit of Rp 11.2 billion during the first five months of this year alone."

At the meeting, the bank also announced its plan to distribute dividends of Rp 100 per share to its shareholders. (31)