Bapindo to go ahead with merger plan
Bapindo to go ahead with merger plan
JAKARTA (JP): State Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) said
on Friday it would go ahead with a merger plan with Bank Mandiri
despite a court ruling to block the move.
The bank's lawyer, Hotman Paris Hutapea, said a shareholders
meeting would be held today to approve the merger plan.
"The shareholders meeting will go ahead as planned on Saturday
to approve the merger," Hotman said, arguing that the court
ruling to suspend the merger deal was not final.
He said Bank Mandiri president Robby Djohan would meet with
the Supreme Court chief justice, Sarwata, today to talk about the
matter.
The shareholders meeting will approve the plan to merge
Bapindo and three other state banks, namely Bank Dagang Negara,
Bank Ekspor Impor and Bank Bumi Daya, into Bank Mandiri.
Bank IFI said on Thursday the South Jakarta District Court had
issued an injunction ordering Bapindo to suspend the merger
process until Bapindo settled its debts with Bank IFI.
Bank IFI president Harry Rachmadi said on Thursday the dispute
with Bapindo started when the latter ordered the former in 1994
to provide some US$9 million in loans to textilemakers PT Vastex
Prima Industry and PT Senang Karisma Tekstil, and PT Jawa Muna
Agribusiness.
He said Bapindo owned a 60 percent stake in Bank IFI at the
time, but now it only had slightly more than 1 percent.
It turned out the loans extended to the three firms were used
to repay nonperforming loans at Bapindo, according to Harry.
He said the loans extended to the three companies became
nonperforming loans and Bapindo should therefore be responsible
for them.
Hotman said the court's decision was not based on any
evidence.
"IFI never gave any evidence to the court detailing any
material losses inflicted on Bank IFI by Bapindo," Hotman said,
adding that nor was there any urgency for IFI to hamper the
merger plan because all Bapindo's rights and obligations would be
transferred to Bank Mandiri after the merger took place.
Bapindo president Agam P. Napitupulu doubted that the loans
were used to repay the debts of the aforementioned three
companies at Bapindo.
"The decision to extend those loans were purely based on Bank
IFI officials, not Bapindo," he said.
However, Bank IFI's lawyer Muchtar Luthfi said Bank IFI had
adequate proof that the loans given to the three companies were
transferred to Bapindo to repay their matured debts with the
bank.
"One of those three companies never actually received the cash
from the loan from IFI in 1994, because it was directly
transferred to Bapindo's account in New York," he said.(udi)