Delay in BCA's IPO won't affect IBRA sale target

JAKARTA (JP): The delay in the initial public offering of Bank Central Asia (BCA) will not affect the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency's asset sale target of Rp 17 trillion (about US$2.3 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March 31.

IBRA's chairman Cacuk Sudariyanto said here on Thursday that the agency had "other sources" to offset the shortage resulting from the delay in the IPO.

IBRA said on Wednesday that BCA's IPO, which was initially scheduled for March, would be delayed to April due to technicalities.

The delay was announced only a few days after the government raised the agency's asset sale target for the April-December fiscal year to Rp 18.9 trillion from Rp 16.25 trillion.

IBRA has said it had so far raised more than Rp 12 trillion in cash and is confident that it could meet the Rp 17 trillion target for this fiscal year.

The agency initially expected to raise Rp 3 trillion in cash from the sale of its 30 percent stake in BCA and another Rp 3 trillion from the sale of its 40 percent stake in the publicly listed auto giant PT Astra International.

IBRA, a unit of the finance ministry, took over BCA last year after its owners, the Salim Group and a number of former president Soeharto's children, failed to repay the bank's debts to the government.

IBRA has appointed Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch and local securities firms PT Bahana Securities and PT Danareksa Securities to oversee the IPO.

BCA is one of the country's largest private banks with total assets amounting to some Rp 84.4 trillion and some 767 branches throughout the country. (hen/rei)