Bank Shinta to offer 30% of shares through IPO

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Shinta plans to offer some 30 percent of its shares to the public through an initial public offering (IPO) in the first semester of this year, according to the bank's marketing and credit director Anny Sugiarto.

"We plan an IPO sometime in the first semester of this year," she told reporters Tuesday on the sidelines of a signing agreement ceremony with state electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) to create a credit card designated for the latter's customers in the Jakarta and Tanggerang area.

Anny said that the bank had yet to appoint the underwriter for the IPO.

The credit card deal with PLN would provide Bank Shinta with a huge opportunity via PLN's large market base. The monthly transaction value for PLN customers in the Jakarta and Tanggerang area recently reached nearly Rp 400 billion (US$55.5 billion).

The credit card is designed to facilitate PLN customers in paying their electricity bill. The card could also be used for other transactions with several appointed merchants.

The bank and PLN have yet to complete other features of the card, but the bank promised that the fee would be lower than other credit cards.

Bank Shinta, formed in 1989, is one of the country's smaller banks to survive the financial crisis of 1998.

The foreign exchange bank has a capital adequacy ratio of 54.83 percent as of Nov. 30, 1999, which is much higher than the minimum 4 percent requirement set by the country's banking authority.

The government has closed down some 66 banks and nationalized 13 banks since the onset of the economic crisis in mid-1997 when the bank's capital plunged into negative territory.

The bank's total assets is Rp 329.6 billion with retained earnings at the end of September totaling Rp 7 billion.

The bank is currently controlled by the Hermijanto family. The bank's president commissioner is Frans Seda, the noted economist and former finance minister. (rei)