Bukopin chief Sofyan Basir named new CEO of BRI

Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In a bid to make Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) the nation's leading lender within the next two years, shareholders of the country's fourth largest bank agreed on Tuesday to revamp the bank's management.

During a shareholders' meeting held amid reports of the bank's rising bad loans and a probe into its information technology system tender, the shareholders agreed to appoint Sofyan Basir as BRI's new president director, replacing Rudjito.

Sofyan, 46, is the current president director of Bank Bukopin, a publicly listed private bank owned mostly by a consortium of military-related cooperatives. The government controls some 60 percent of BRI, with the remaining shares held by retail investors.

Rudjito will retain a place in the bank's management as the bank's new chief commissioner, replacing Sukanto Reksohadiprodjo.

BRI's change of management took place following a Bank Mandiri reshuffle, which saw Agus Martowardojo of Bank Permata being named president director to replace graft-suspect ECW Neloe.

BRI has recently been in the media spotlight for alleged bad loans dispersed to PT Domba Mas and investigations of improper tendering for its IT system.

The bank's management have denied any improper behavior and Rudjito said the reshuffle had nothing to do these cases.

"Today's change of management is simply meant to make BRI better, particularly in its lending to small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME)," he said, mentioning BRI's vision to be the country's biggest SME lender by 2006, and the nation's best bank by 2007.

BRI credit supervision director Gayatri Rawit Angreni said reports the bank had non-performing loans worth Rp 680 billion to the Sawit Mas Group were untrue.

Gayatri said BRI had managed to reduce its gross non- performing loans to 4.19 percent of its total Rp 62.37 trillion in disbursed credit, down from 6.03 percent the year before.

Tuesday's shareholders meeting also approved a plan to allocate 50 percent of the bank's 2004 net profit for a dividend payment worth some Rp 1.82 trillion (about US$191 million).

"We will pay dividends of Rp 152.88 a share," Rudjito said.

BRI's first quarter net income rose to Rp 1.15 trillion, from Rp 1.1 trillion a year earlier. The bank is expecting its net income to rise by as much as 25 percent this year, and experience a growth in loans of between 22 percent and 25 percent.

Position new official former official

President director Sofyan Basir Rudjito
vice president director Wayan Alit Antara Ahmad Askandar
micro and retail business Ventje Rahardjo Krisna Wijaya
director
operational director Ahmad Askandar Wayan Alit

Antara
banking compliance director Hendrawan Hendrawan

Tranggana Tranggana
medium business director Akhmad Amien Akhmad Amien

Mastur Mastur
credit supervision director Gayatri Rawit Gayatri Rawit

Angreni Angreni

New Board of Commissioners: Former Board of Commissioners:

Rudjito Sukanto Reksohadiprodjo
Cyrillus Harinowo Arbali Sukanal
Krisna Wijaya Syahrial Hamid
Bunasor Ferdinand Nainggolan
BS Kusmuljono
Aviliani
Sunarsip