BNI, BDN, Bapindo stay in the black amid crisis

JAKARTA (JP): Three state banks -- Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI), Bank Dagang Negara (BDN) and Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo) -- chalked up profits in the first half of the year despite the worsening economic crisis.

In financial reports released Monday, BNI reported a 69 percent decline in first half net profit to Rp 70.7 billion (US$6.4 million), from Rp 230 billion in the corresponding period last year.

The fall was aggravated by dwindling interest income to Rp 34.6 billion from Rp 629.3 billion in the first half of 1997.

In addition, the bank allocated a huge provision for nonperforming loans, which stood at Rp 3.92 trillion as of the end of last June compared to only Rp 97.8 billion at the same time last year.

The bank recorded a huge increase in foreign exchange profits of Rp 4.37 trillion, compared with only Rp 54 billion in the first half of last year.

BDN reported a 97 percent fall in consolidated net profits to Rp 3.3 billion, from Rp 108.4 billion in the corresponding period last year.

The bank said it suffered a net interest lost of Rp 799.36 billion, a swing from a net interest profit of Rp 289 billion in the first half of 1997.

The nonperforming loans provision also increased to Rp 958.19 billion as of the end of June, compared with Rp 5.66 billion at the same stage last year.

Like BNI, BDN was saved from falling into the red by huge foreign exchange profits of Rp 2.8 trillion, up from Rp 420.9 billion in the first half of 1997.

Unlike BNI and BDN, Bapindo booked soaring profit for the first half of 1998 of Rp 1.1 trillion from a mere Rp 43.7 billion in the corresponding period of 1997.

Bapindo, however, suffered a huge interest lost of Rp 669.5 billion, from a positive interest margin of Rp 13.1 billion.

It also allocated a huge amount of money for loan-loss provisions which stood at Rp 1.32 trillion at the end of June 1998, compared to Rp 9 billion at the end of June 1997.

Like BNI and BDN, Bapindo was saved by a huge foreign exchange earning of Rp 3.65 trillion in the first half of 1998, compared with Rp 16.3 billion in the same period last year. (rid)