BCM survives bankruptcy suit

BCM survives bankruptcy suit

JAKARTA (JP): The Central Jakarta Commercial Court has
rejected a bankruptcy claim filed by listed Bank Internasional
Indonesia (BII) against the debt guarantors of PT Bentala Coal
Mining (BCM) on procedural reasons.

Purwoko J. Soemantri, the lawyer for PT Bentala Coal Mining,
said that the court's decision was issued on Aug. 25 in favor of
his client.

The bankruptcy claim was invalid because it was filed by the
management of the bank when it was already taken over, he said.
He said BCM was under debt negotiation with the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA) because BII had lost authority over
all its receivables to IBRA when it joined the recapitalization
program.

BII was taken over by IBRA when it joined the government-
sponsored recapitalization program in March.

The plaintiff's lawyer, Benny K. Harman, regretted the verdict
saying that even though BII was taken over by IBRA, it did not
mean BII could not defend its rights.

"BII has signed a recapitalization agreement with the
government, but clearly the agreement did not stipulate that BII
would lose its collection rights over its debtors to IBRA,"
Benny told The Jakarta Post on Monday. (udi)