BTN expects profits to rise

BTN expects profits to rise

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN), the state-owned bank
specializing in housing credits, expects its net profits to rise
by 25 percent this year to Rp 211 billion (US$90.6 million).

"Based on a strong performance last year, we expect to expand
our total lending by approximately Rp 2.9 billion this year,"
BTN's president, Widigdo Sukarman, told the House of
Representatives' Commission V on finance and banking yesterday.

"Therefore, our total assets are expected to grow by 14
percent to Rp 10.8 trillion by the end of this year," Widigdo
said.

The bank's total assets grew by 39 percent to Rp 9.5 trillion
last year and net profits increased by 31 percent to Rp 169
billion.

Widigdo said that BTN's total outstanding credits would reach
Rp 7.9 trillion by the end of this year and housing credits will
probably account for 89 percent of the total.

As of Dec. 31, 1995, BTN's housing loans were Rp 7.8 trillion,
given to more than one million borrowers.

Six percent of the total housing credits were allocated for
the purchase of 101,633 very-low-cost houses and the remaining
64.8 percent for 962,630 low-cost houses.

Widigdo said that last year's profit increase was due mainly
to a significant credit expansion in 1994 as well as an increase
in loan repayments.

"Moreover, we were able to reduce our problem loans to only
0.11 percent of the total outstanding loans," Widigdo added. (08)