IBRA to sell more Salim Group assets

JAKARTA (JP): The powerful Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said on Thursday it would sell four more assets pledged by the giant Salim Group to the agency by the end of the year.

The companies are wheat flour mill PT Berdikari Sari Utama Flour Mills, distribution company PT Indomarco Adi Prima, gift/souvenir maker PT Indogift Chuencher Indah, and an edible oil and fat manufacturing group of companies.

"With the launch of these four assets and the eight assets recently launched, plus the sale of ownership in PT Sulfindo which we expect to announce in the next two weeks, Holdiko expects to conclude an additional 13 more asset sales in 2001," Scott Coffey, a director of Holdiko, said in a statement.

PT Holdiko Perkasa is a holding company set up by IBRA to manage the various ex-Salim Group assets.

"Although we only have three more working months before the year end, we are optimistic that we will reach our target as set by IBRA for this year," he said.

IBRA controls billions of dollars worth of assets transferred by former bank owners to repay their debts to the government, and from closed down or ailing banks.

The agency is mandated to raise cash to help plug the state budget deficit by selling the assets. IBRA is targeted to raise Rp 27 trillion (US$3.05 billion) this year, but so far has raised less than Rp 12 trillion.

Elsewhere, IBRA said that it would sell its entire 64 percent stake in Berdikari Sari Utama Flour which has a 840.000 metric ton per year production capacity.

The agency said it would also sell a 20.16 percent stake in Indomarco Adi Prima, its 50 percent stake in Indogift Chuenher Indah as well 20 percent in each of the edible oil and fat group of companies PT Inti Boga Sejahtera, PT Salim Oil Grains and PT Bitung Menado Oil.

Coffey, however, did not say how much was expected from the sales.

The Salim Group, run by one of the nation's most powerful business families, transferred ownership in more than 100 operating companies to Holdiko to repay loans owed by the group's Bank Central Asia.

The International Monetary Fund has repeatedly criticized IBRA for the slow progress in the asset sale program.

IBRA does not allow the former owners of pledged assets to buy back the assets.(11)