Bank Permata posts Rp 102 billion profit

Bank Permata posts Rp 102 billion profit

JAKARTA: After almost six months of weathering a post-merger consolidation, Bank Permata posts Rp 102 billion (US$12 million) of net profit in the first quarter of 2003.

A quarterly report of Bank Permata made public on Thursday said that the rise in profit was attributed to income from interest of which 40 percent was gained from the government recapitalization bonds.

In December 2002, the bank recorded a net loss of Rp 808 billion.

Bank Permata was born in Sept. 2002 out of a merger of five banks -- Bank Bali, Bank Universal, Bank Patriot, Bank Artamedia and Bank Prima Express. With a total assets of Rp 28 trillion, the bank is the seventh largest in the country.

Bank Permata director Elvyn Masassya said during a public expose that the bank was upbeat over making a significant rise of profit by the end of 2003. He did not give detail on the figure.

Currently, Bank Permata is striving to reach a healthy nonperforming loans (NPL) ratio of 5 percent by the end of June. In March the ratio stood at 9.7 percent.

"If we managed to settle Rp 400 billion worth of bad debts by the end of this month (June), the NPLs ratio would reach 4.6 percent," Agus Martowardojo, president of the bank said. --JP