Bapepam fines 5 firms for belated reports

JAKARTA (JP): The Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) fined five companies a total of Rp 151.1 million (US$67,045) for their belated reports on their deals of Bank Papan Sejahtera shares on the Jakarta and Surabaya Stock Exchanges.

Press reports quoted Secretary of Bapepam M. Irsan Nasarudin Saturday as saying that the five companies were PT Bank PDFCI, PT REI Sewindu, FGH Bank, Bank Papan and International Finance Corporation, an affiliate of the World Bank.

The capital market watchdog fined Bank PDFCI Rp 59.99 million for its delay in reporting its deal to Bapepam, REI Sewindu Rp 59.99 million, FGH Bank Rp 17 million, Bank Papan Rp 11 million and International Finance Corporation Rp 4 million.

According Bapepam's regulations, publicly-listed companies should report to Bapepam any events which could affect share prices within 24 hours. Bapepam also requires the disclosure of those owning five percent or more of a company, and to report any change in the amount of their shares.

Bapepam Chairman Bacelius Ruru said earlier that the sale of around 22 percent of Bank Papan Sejahtera's shares to businessman Jopie Widjaya had violated the agency's disclosure procedures.

Jopie, the president of the publicly listed Steady Safe, acquired 22.52 percent of Bank Papan's shares from PDFCI and other founders of the bank through his wholly-owned Infinity Wahana in May. But sources said that Jopie also acquired another 29 percent stake through his affiliated firms, making him the largest single shareholder in the bank.

The unprecedented takeover of Bank Papan caused concern among the public, who feared that the new majority shareholder would divert the bank's main business of mortgage operations to other consumer banking activities.

Bapepam issued a new ruling on Aug. 18 stipulating that the purchase of 20 percent or more of the shares of a listed company must be publicly tendered. The tender offer must be announced in at least two widely-circulated newspapers and be submitted to Bapepam for an approval.

"If the management or the supervisory board of the target company feel that the information published by the bidder is misleading, they are also allowed to announce their objections in newspapers up to 15 days before the end of the bidding period," Ruru said upon issuing the new regulation.

Bapepam has booked Rp 1.4 billion of fines on 51 companies due to their delays in reporting their deals on shares. (kod)