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)