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)