BCA gets green light to float shares on JSX despite losses

JAKARTA (JP): The management of the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) will accept the planned listing of Bank Central Asia on the bourse despite the fact that the bank suffered losses in the last two consecutive years.

The JSX said Thursday that BCA, once the country's largest banks, had met all the requirements except that which required the bank to book profits in at least two consecutive years before listing.

The JSX, however, said the financial loss was understandable because it had not resulted from mismanagement but rather was due to the country's economic crisis, which brought harsh effects to most of the country's business sectors.

The JSX said the exception contained in an initial listing contract signed with BCA on Wednesday was essential to ensure that the profit requirement would not prevent companies with good prospects from entering the stock market.

The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) will sell about 30 percent of the shares it holds in Bank Central Asia (BCA) in an initial public offering (IPO) in February, an official at the agency said.

IBRA has appointed Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and local securities firms PT Bahana Securities and PT Danareksa Securities to oversee the IPO.

The agency initially planned to sell the BCA shares in December, but had to delay the offering due to fallout caused by the high-profile Bank Bali scandal.

IBRA, a unit of the finance ministry, took over BCA last year after its owners, the Salim Group and a number of former president Soeharto's children, failed to repay the bank's debts to the government.

BCA, one of the country's largest private banks, has total assets amounting to some Rp 84.4 trillion and operates some 767 branches throughout the country.(hen)