IBRA collects Rp 456b from final property sale

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Thirty-three days before its official closure on Feb. 27, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) collected on Monday Rp 456 billion (US$53.47 million) for the state treasury from its final property asset sale.

Of the eight total property sales it has conducted, IBRA was able to generate over Rp 2.66 trillion from a total of 4,528 individual, 17 bulk and two superbulk property assets. The overall recovery rate on the assets averaged 127.25 percent.

About 939 assets, including 411 individual, nine bulk and two superbulk items, out of the 1,618 assets on offer were sold. The total value of the properties in the sale was about Rp 1.63 trillion.

The sold assets were in the form of land, buildings, factories, hotels, apartments, warehouses and shops across the country.

"Most of the assets that were sold were in the form of land and assets located in Jakarta," said the agency's communications division head, Rohan Hafas.

This final sale had the highest percentage of assets sold (58.03 percent) with a 116 percent recovery rate, which is the second lowest of the seven sales.

The highest recovery rate, 152 percent, was recorded in the third sale.

IBRA began the registration for its final sale on Jan. 7. It drew about 1,166 interested investors who submitted their bids to the agency's seven centers in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surabaya, Medan, Makassar and Bandar Lampung.

IBRA was set up in early 1998 during the administration of president B.J. Habibie. It was ordered to restructure the country's ailing banking sector.

One of its main tasks was to take over the assets of troubled banks and their former owners. The assets were then sold to help finance the state budget, which has been enormously burdened by the government's bank bailout program.

For those assets under IBRA's control that have not yet been sold, the government announced that it will set up a holding company. The government will also set up a body under the Ministry of Finance to take over the role of IBRA in implementing the government's blanket guarantee program on bank deposits.

IBRA Property Asset Sale Program

Sale program 1 2 3 4(1) 4(2) 4(3) 4(4) 5

Assets on offer (units) 1740 1851 2611 1568 1247 1429 1690 1618

Assets sold (units) 852 720 1346 383 161 256 399 939

Recovery Rate (%) 140 136 152 125 118 114 117 116

Profit (in Rp billion) 372 620 685 135 36 161 195 456

Source: IBRA