Bank Surya ties up with Korean bank

Bank Surya ties up with Korean bank

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly-listed Bank Surya, a subsidiary of the
Golden Truly Group of Indonesia, will open a joint venture bank
with the Commercial Bank of Korea later this year to support
economic relations between the two countries.

Sudwikatmono, president commissioner of the Golden Truly
Group, AK Ariawan, president of Bank Surya and Seo Kwang Ha, vice
president of the Commercial Bank of Korea, signed the joint
venture agreement yesterday.

The new bank, with a paid up capital of Rp 100 billion (US$45
million), is 80 percent owned by the Commercial Bank of Korea and
20 percent by Bank Surya.

AK Ariawan said that the joint venture bank, to be named Korea
Commercial Bank Surya, is expected to start operation later this
year.

Kwang noted that his bank, the third largest bank in Korea in
terms of assets, had planned to enter Indonesia since 1991 to
support the increasing business activities of Korean investors in
Indonesia.

Indonesia is Korea's fourth largest trading partner and Korea
is the sixth largest foreign investor in Indonesia.

The 96 year-old Commercial Bank of Korea, with a total asset
of US$41.13 billion as of last year, is the 172th largest bank in
the world.

The bank operates 322 offices in Korea, seven branch offices
in New York, London, Tokyo, Osaka and Singapore, three
representative offices in New York, one in Frankfurt and another
one on Hong Kong.

Bank Surya, with total assets of Rp 860 billion, was the 26th
largest bank in Indonesia in terms of assets as of December.

The bank was set up in Surabaya, East Java, in 1969 and was
acquired by Sudwikatmono's Golden Truly Group through its
subsidiary PT Dwi Golden Graha in 1987.

In 1989, the bank floated four million common shares, 16
percent of its total shares, to the public through the Jakarta
and Surabaya stock exchanges and moved its headquarters to
Jakarta in 1993.

Currently Bank Surya operates 29 branch offices in Indonesia
and another one on Cook Island. Last year, the bank recorded
after tax profits of Rp 7.04 billion, up 41.23 percent from 1993.

The bank's reports show that its current return on equity is
13.01 percent, its return on assets 1.78 percent and its capital
adequacy ratio 10.38 percent. (rid)