IBRA: No bankruptcy suit for Djajanti

IBRA: No bankruptcy suit for Djajanti

JAKARTA (JP): A senior official of the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said on Sunday the agency thus far
has no plans to file a bankruptcy petition against plantation and
fishery concern Djajanti Group.

"Until today, we have not made any plans to file a bankruptcy
petition against the company. What we have done thus far is give
signals for the company to engage in more serious talks on its
debt restructuring program," IBRA's senior vice president and
general counsel asset management credit Agustus A Nugroho told
The Jakarta Post.

Nugroho said the letter IBRA sent to the company stating that
the agency would confiscate the company's asset, Djajanti Plaza,
unless the latter made a Rp 206.5 billion (US$23.7 million) cash
payment, was a sort of call for the company to be more serious in
thinking about its debt restructuring program.

"With the letter, we wanted to urge the company to engage in
discussions at a more serious level," Nugroho said.

According to Nugroho, Djajanti, one of the 21 largest obligors
whose debts have been taken over by IBRA, has a total debt of
about Rp 5 trillion, including unpaid interest.

IBRA demanded Djajanti pay Rp 279 billion up front to
demonstrate its cooperative attitude.

But, Djajanti said it did not have that amount of money and
proposed providing Rp 25 billion in the first cash payment and
paying the rest in installments over three years. Later, it
raised the first cash payment to Rp 50 billion.

But, Nugroho said IBRA was not satisfied with the latest
proposal.

"We are ready for discussions with the company as long as it
is cooperative," Nugroho said.

Djajanti's commissioner Effendi Sasrawijaya earlier complained
that IBRA had always ignored Djajanti's proposals and none of
IBRA's decision makers were willing to meet with the company's
executives for talks on its debt restructuring program.

Djajanti which has 70 percent of its plantation and fishery
plant assets in Maluku and Irian Jaya is now facing difficulties
in its operations following the one-and-a-half-year long religous
violence in Maluku and the rising separatist movement in Irian
Jaya.

Djajanti employs about 50,000 people in Maluku and Irian Jaya,
including a large number of local poeple. (jsk)