BCA books 50% increase in pre-tax profit in Q1

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed PT Bank Central Asia (BCA) reported a 50 percent increase in pre-tax profits, amounting to Rp 554 billion (about US$48 million) in the first quarter ending in March this year, up from Rp 370 billion during the same period last year.

The company said in a statement on Monday that net interest income rose by about 125 percent to Rp 1.05 trillion in this year's January to March period, up from Rp 465 billion during the same period last year.

The increase was mainly caused by an increase in lending and the increase in interest rates of the bank's recapitalization bonds, the bank said.

Other operating income during the three month period increased by 25 percent to Rp 278 billion from Rp 222 billion, while operating expenses increased by 132 percent to Rp 784 billion due to an increase in reserved funds and personnel costs.

As of March 31, 2001, BCA's total assets rose to Rp 99.73 trillion, up from Rp 98.79 trillion in the same month last year the company said. Outstanding lending rose to Rp 9.14 trillion, an increase of 133 percent compared with Rp 3.81 trillion as of March 31, last year.

"The increase in credit also includes an increase in credit for small and medium businesses amounting to 104.08 percent," it said.

Non-performing loans reached 7.6 percent as of March 31 this year compared to 6.03 percent in the same month last year, which included restructured credit taken over from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) totaling Rp 304 billion.

The third party fund composition also showed an improvement with 64.91 percent in the form of checking and savings accounts and 35.09 percent in deposit accounts, compared to 56.84 percent and 43.16 percent respectively in March last year.

Total third party funds reached Rp 88.45 trillion as of March 31, 2001, compared to Rp 87.95 trillion in the same period the previous year.

The company's equity increased to Rp 7.5 trillion as of March this year from Rp 5.45 trillion last year, while its capital adequacy ratio -- the ratio between its capital against risk- weighted assets -- dropped to 35.66 percent as of March 31, this month from 36.87 percent in the same period last year.(tnt)