Ficorinvest opens branch in Surabaya

Ficorinvest opens branch in Surabaya

SURABAYA (JP): Publicly listed Ficorinvest Bank has opened a
new branch in Surabaya, East Java, to tap into the growing
business activities in the province.

Ficorinvest's director Supari Dhirdjoprawiro said the rapidly
developing manufacturing sector would be the main market target
for the bank's new branch.

"The rapid growth of middle to large-scale corporations in
Surabaya has prompted us to open our first branch here," he said
at the official opening ceremony on Friday.

Ficorinvest had allocated about Rp 60 billion (US$23.12
million) to back up the new branch's lending activities.

Supari said the new branch would allocate 70 percent of its
lending to corporate borrowers and the remaining 30 percent to
retail clients.

In addition to the manufacturing sector, the bank would also
provide credit to other sectors such as transportation, real
estate, infrastructure and communications.

Supari said that the bank had arranged a number of syndicated
loans for small-scale companies in the country.

Between January and July this year, Ficorinvest arranged
syndicated loans worth Rp 250 billion. The bank expected to lend
a total of Rp 1.8 trillion in syndicated loans by the end of the
year.

Despite PT Bhakti Investama's recent plan to increase its
share ownership in Ficorinvest, Supari said he did not know of
any changes.

As of July 31, Ficorinvest was 35.41 percent owned by Bank
Indonesia (BI), 19 percent by BI's Pension fund, 16.03 percent by
BI's employee's cooperative, 2.08 percent by PT Bina Usaha
Indonesia and 27.48 percent by the investing public.

PT Bhaktie Investama, a local securities company, said earlier
that it would increase its ownership in Ficorinvest from 19
percent to 26 percent.

The securities company said it would buy another 10.54 million
shares, or 5.9 percent, of Ficorinvest's shares through a tender
offer.

Supari said he heard Bhakti would buy some of the shares from
the public but he did not know the structure of the new
shareholder composition.

Ficorinvest assets in the January to July period reached Rp
1.23 trillion, while total loans were Rp 1.06 trillion. The
bank's net profit reached Rp 17.48 billion in the first semester
of this year.

Last year the bank's net profit rose nearly 50 percent to Rp
17.05 billion from Rp 11.59 billion in 1995. (nur/das)