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)