Bankruptcy hearing against PT Sarana Kemas adjourned
Bankruptcy hearing against PT Sarana Kemas adjourned
JAKARTA (JP): The Jakarta Commercial Court has adjourned the
hearing pitting publicly-listed Bank PDFCI against paper producer
PT Sarana Kemas Utama until Oct. 21 to allow the panel of judges
time to study the charges brought by the plaintiff.
Presiding judge Haryono, who chaired the first hearing on
Wednesday, said the proceeding should also be delayed to allow
the defendant time to study the charges.
"We have adjourned the hearing until Oct. 21. No decision has
been taken today," Haryono said after the first hearing on
Wednesday.
Publicly listed Bank PDFCI filed a petition with the court on
Sept. 30 demanding that the paper producer PT Sarana Kemas be
declared insolvent after it failed to repay a Rp 21.78 billion
debt owed to the bank.
The plaintiff's lawyer Teguh Samudera from the firm of the
same name said the paper producer had failed to repay the loan it
secured from the bank between 1993 and 1995.
"The loan matured in 1997 but PT Sarana has not serviced the
interest and principal repayments since then," he said.
He said that PT Sarana had acknowledged its total debts and
its failure to repay them.
"Due to that, we believe that the court should approve our
petition," he said.
Amex
In another development, American Express Bank's Singapore
branch appealed on Wednesday against the court's decision to
reject its bankruptcy petition against PT Ometraco Corporation.
Bambang S.M. Praptomo from Kramadibrata, Karim, Sani and
Manihuruk law firm, who is acting on behalf of Amex Bank, said
his client had appealed to the Supreme Court to declare PT
Ometraco insolvent.
"We submitted our appeal on Oct. 13 and we remain consistent
with our charges that Ometraco should be declared bankrupt," he
told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
In a surprise move last month, the Jakarta Commercial Court
turned down a petition brought by American Express Bank against
PT Ometraco because, according to the court, the plaintiff's
charge overlapped with a similar charge brought against
Ometraco's subsidiary PT Ometraco Multi Artha.
Presiding judge Haryono, who chaired the hearing last month,
asked the plaintiff to appeal to the Supreme Court.
The bankruptcy law allows either party involved in a dispute
to appeal to the Supreme Court. The appeal must be heard within
30 days.
Amex filed a bankruptcy petition against PT Ometraco on Sept.
17 as a result of the latter's failure to repay a US$60 million
loan which matured on Jan. 7 of this year.
However Bastian Rahmat from Dermawan & Co law firm, who is
representing Ometraco Corporation, told the Post separately that
his client had also submitted an appeal to the Supreme Court
demanding the insolvency petition filed by Amex be turned down.
(aly)