IBRA plans to sell assets worth Rp 500b next month

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said on Friday it would sell assets under its authority worth between Rp 400 billion (US$50 million) and Rp 500 billion next month.

IBRA vice chairman Farid Harianto said some of the assets would be in the form of portfolio assets at companies listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange. He declined to disclose the names of the companies.

"This is the result of our recent road show abroad. We are currently negotiating with some foreign investors on a number of assets. We hope we can raise between Rp 400 billion and Rp 500 billion," he said.

Farid would not disclose the assets for sale, but he said they were among assets pledged by seven large business groups to IBRA following the failure of their banks.

The seven business groups include the Salim Group (controlled by Sudono Salim), the Gadjah Tunggal Group (Syamsul Nursalim), the Danamon Group (Usman Admadjaja), Surya and Subentra (Sudwikatmono), Ongko (Kaharudin Ongko) and groups linked to Mohamad "Bob" Hasan.

Assets pledged by the seven groups include cash, and equity in 215 companies. They are worth more than Rp 90 trillion.

Farid said the value of assets under IBRA control would continue to increase, as it was in the process of recouping assets from owners of 38 private banks closed down by the government earlier this year and eight taken over banks.

He said that IBRA had recently sold $21 million worth of assets under its control, including a private jet belonging to Bob Hasan and stakes of ceramic tile maker Keramika Indonesia Assosiasi (KIA), owned by the Ongko Group.

He said the agency would not conduct a fire sale of the assets, as it had four years to dispose of them.

The majority of the assets are agribusiness firms (35) and property ventures (24 percent). Other assets are companies operating in chemicals (14 percent), automobiles (6 percent), plywood (5 percent), food (4 percent), cement (3 percent) and others (6 percent).

He said the agency was studying various options on how to dispose of the assets, including an initial public offering on the stock market.

Farid said that in addition IBRA would continue to sell non- core assets, including artwork, office equipment, furniture, real estate, automobiles and motorcycles.

The sale of 698 automobiles, 303 motorcycles and 867 pieces of artwork has generated Rp 53.1 billion for IBRA.

The non-core assets were mostly acquired from closed private banks.

Currently, IBRA has 12 banks under its management, four of which are on offer to private investors to participate in their recapitalization. The four banks are Bank Central Asia, Bank Danamon, Bank PDFCI and Bank Tiara.

IBRA, along with the government, is currently negotiating with foreign investors who held an interest in Bank Niaga, which was taken over by the government last month after its owners gave up on their bank's recapitalization efforts.

Interested foreign investors include ABN Amro Bank, GE Capital, New Bridge Capital and Global Alliance.

Farid said the auditing of seven other taken over banks should be completed by next week.

"After the audits are completed, we will determine resolution strategies for each of the seven taken over banks, hopefully by mid-June." (rid)