BBL raises stake in Mashill to 18%

BBL raises stake in Mashill to 18%

JAKARTA (JP): Belgian Bank Brussels Lambert (BBL) has
increased its stake in publicly listed Bank Mashill to 18 percent
from 10 percent.

Bank Mashill president A.T. Windoe said yesterday BBL's
additional 8 percent attained through the capital market showed
that BBL had high confidence in the country's banking system
despite the monetary crisis.

"Bank Brussels Lambert has a lot of confidence in the prospect
of Bank Mashill and the country's banking system and in the way
the Indonesian government is overcoming the monetary crisis," he
said.

BBL bought into Bank Mashill early last year when it purchased
18.49 million shares. It bought another 3.2 million shares in
June to increase its stake in the bank to 10 percent.

Executives from Bank Mashill and BBL did not mention the value
of the transaction.

Bank Mashill is currently 18 percent owned by BBL, 51 percent
by the Karta Wijaya family and the rest by public shareholders.

Windoe said Bank Mashill recorded a pretax profit of about Rp
27 billion in 1997.

BBL Asia-Pacific regional general manager Joseph Kestemont
said yesterday that BBL was now part of the ING Group, one of the
largest financial service groups in Benelux countries after ING
bought out BBL in December last year.

He said the ING Group had a strong presence in Indonesian
banking, securities and insurance businesses.

He said the ING Group had several subsidiaries in the country,
including ING Bank, a joint venture with Bank Dagang Bali, PT ING
Barings Securities and PT ING Insurance. (aly)