IBRA may sue 9 firms under Ongko Group
IBRA may sue 9 firms under Ongko Group
JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said on Friday it was considering filing bankruptcy petitions against nine subsidiaries of the heavily indebted Ongko Group.
Assistant vice president of IBRA's litigation group Robertus Bilitea said the nine companies owed IBRA some Rp 208.4 billion (US$24.2 million) in debts from banks currently under its care.
"We still have to complete our study on the nine companies' documents before filing the bankruptcy petition," Robertus said in a media briefing.
The nine companies include PT Aria Bumi Graha, PT Aria Wahana Internasional, PT Aria Putra Graha, PT Istana Prestisindo and PT Keramik Sumber Karisma Dinamika.
Robertus said IBRA was thinking of filing a bankruptcy suit because the none of the nine companies showed good business prospects.
"They are simply paper companies with no real businesses," he said, referring to all of Ongko's 13 subsidiaries, which owed total debts of Rp 760 billion.
IBRA said in a statement that loans to the Ongko Group had been granted without a qualified credit analysis and clear usage.
Robertus said that an investigative audit would be held to find possible fund malfeasance in each of Ongko's 13 subsidiaries.
In its debt restructuring proposal, he said, the Ongko Group forwarded assets amounting to Rp 100 billion as guarantees, but IBRA had refused the offer.
Robertus said the guarantees were not comparable to Ongko's total outstanding debts of Rp 760 billion.
He said the Ongko Group owed IBRA another Rp 551 billion through its other four subsidiaries, which IBRA recently took to the bankruptcy court for not paying their matured debts.
The four subsidiaries are PT Landasan Terus Santosa, PT Mustika Niagatama Nusantara PT Citra Mahkota Abadi and PT Indoland.
IBRA last month won its first bankruptcy case against PT Landasan Terus Santosa, which owed the agency some Rp 270 billion.It was the agency's first success after a number of failures in its legal actions against uncooperative debtors.
In the ongoing proceedings, the court allowed the remaining three companies to suspend the payment of their debts for anther 270 days as of July 20, in order to enable them to renegotiate their debt restructuring proposals with IBRA.
If the talks fail during the suspension of the debt payment period, the companies will be immediately declared bankrupt.
In filing the bankruptcy petitions, IBRA acted on behalf of Bank Mashill, Bank Bali and Bank Danamon, the banks which provided the loans to the four companies.
Robertus hinted that following the investigative audit, the four banks could be charged with corruption, collusion and nepotism in its dealings with the Ongko Group as seen from their weak credit analysis.(bkm)