BRI books Rp 1.5 trillion in pre-tax income
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
State-owned PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) booked Rp 1.54 trillion (US$181 million) in pre-tax income in the first half of the year, up 49.71 percent from Rp 1.03 trillion over the same period last year.
BRI's president director Rudjito told press conference on Monday that the hike mostly due to an increase in BRI' interest revenue. He did not provide the figures of net income.
BRI's interest revenue increased to Rp 7.4 trillion compared to Rp 6.54 trillion over the same period last year.
Net interest income increased by 27.4 percent to Rp 3.64 trillion from Rp 2.86 trillion over the same period last year.
"Nearly 50 percent of the net interest income came from loan interest. The remainders are from recapitalization bonds," said Rudjito, adding that the bank holds a total of Rp 29 trillion in recap bonds.
He said the bank continued focusing on loan channeling for micro-, small- and medium-scale enterprises. Of Rp 43.6 trillion in outstanding loans as of June this year, 91.62 percent were channeled to such enterprises.
BRI plans to issue 10-year dollar-denominated bonds worth $120 million. The bank has appointed UBS Warburg as lead underwriter. It will hold a road show in the second week of September to Singapore, Hong Kong and London to seek investors for the bonds.
Rudjito said that the bank would use the funds generated from the bonds to support its capital adequacy ratio (CAR)
"We need to maintain our CAR at a minimum of 12 percent so that we may continue channeling loans," he said.
Previously, the bank revealed that without increased working capital from either an initial public offering (IPO) or a bond issue, the bank's CAR would decline to around 11.5 percent in 2004 from 12.36 percent in the first half of the year.
The central bank has planned to increase CAR requirement for local banks to 12 percent next year, from 8 percent.
The government has planned to sell 30 percent of its stake in the bank to the public through an IPO this year.