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)