Ex-Citibank banker to head BII
Ex-Citibank banker to head BII
Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Shareholders of the publicly-listed Bank Internasional
Indonesia (BII) appointed on Tuesday Henry Ho, an ex-Citibank
banker, as the new president of the country's sixth largest bank
in terms of assets.
The decision was made during an extraordinary shareholders
meeting held to reshuffle the management of the bank after it was
acquired by Sorak Financial Holding, a consortium comprising
South Korea's Kookmin Bank and Singapore's Temasek Holdings.
The consortium acquired in late October a 51 percent stake in
BII, the former financial arm of the Sinar Mas Group, from the
Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) for around Rp 1.9
trillion (US$224.85 million).
Ho, who has 22 years of experience with Citibank and
Citigroup, will take office on Jan. 1, 2004, replacing Sigit
Pramono, who has been chosen as the new president of state-owned
Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI).
The shareholders also appointed Armand B. Arief as the new
vice president; Peter Seah as the new chief commissioner; and
Sumantri Slamet (currently still a deputy chairman at IBRA) as
the deputy chief commissioner.
To help boost internal supervision, BII will now have a 10-
member board of commissioners, compared to a five-member board
previously.
Shares in BII were unchanged at Rp 100 per share at the close
of Tuesday's trade on the Jakarta Stock Exchange amid profit-
taking activities in the market.
Meanwhile, Ho said that the new management would maintain
BII's current business plan.
However, he also said that he would make several adjustments
to establish synergies between the local banking experience
possessed by BII and the international reputation of the Sorak
Consortium.
"Together with BII, I will continue to build on our strengths
to become a leading consumer and SME (small and medium
enterprise) bank in Indonesia," said Ho.
Ho said he would continue to develop Islamic banking, and
hoped to expand it further. He said that his experience with
Citigroup in various countries, especially Saudi Arabia, would
help him in developing the Islamic banking system.
However, Henry did not elaborate on whether the Sorak
Consortium would raise its stake in BII after the management's
replacement. He said that it would be up to the shareholders to
decide.
After selling the 51 percent stake in BII, IBRA on Tuesday
sold another 18 percent through the stock market. The agency
still retains an around 24.5 percent stake in BII.
BII is now listed among the country's top 10 banks with 1.1
million customers and assets of more than Rp 36 trillion (US$4.1
billion).