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)