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)