BRI to go public in 1999

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) will go public in August 1999, a BRI director said Monday.

BRI's director for regional development, Soetanto Hadinoto, said the bank had not yet decided how many shares would be sold on the capital market.

"But we're working on it now," he was quoted by Antara. as saying in Denpasar.

"We need to list on the capital market to get cheap funds for our business development," he said.

He said BRI's profitability over the last three years qualified it to go public.

Last year the company posted a pre-tax profit of Rp 345 billion (US$146.8 million), up 37 percent from Rp 225 billion in 1995.

He did not say what the bank's profit target for this year was but said an increase was expected. (bnt)