IBRA to sell Salim assets to meet 2001 target

IBRA to sell Salim assets to meet 2001 target

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA)
said on Monday it planned to sell assets of the giant Salim Group
to meet the agency's 2001 budget sales target of Rp 27 trillion
(US$3.1 billion).

"Salim's assets in various businesses like plantations,
properties, and hotels remain our mainstay for IBRA's revenue,"
IBRA chairman Cacuk Sudarijanto was quoted as saying by news
agency Antara after attending the presentation of the 2001 state
budget draft at the House of Representatives.

In the 2001 draft the government stipulated a sales target of
Rp 27 trillion for IBRA, higher than the agency's sales target of
Rp 18.9 trillion this year.

The current budget year, however, only runs from April to
December 2000, as the government adjusted from a March-April
budget year to a calender based budget year.

Cacuk expressed his optimism that IBRA would meet its next
sales target, estimating that the biggest contribution would come
from the agency's Asset Management Credit (AMC) division.

The AMC division is in charge of restructuring non-performing
loans of banks IBRA has taken over.

The Salim Group has handed over to IBRA majority interest in
107 companies as part of the debt settlement of its affiliated
Bank Central Asia (BCA). IBRA maintains the companies under the
holding company PT Holdiko Perkasa.

Holdiko comprises, among others, 25 property firms, 24 palm
plantations, 10 food & consumer product firms, nine oleochemical
firms, five coal & granite firms, four plywood firms, four sugar
firms, and one communication company.

Salim and IBRA initially valued Holdiko assets at Rp 50
trillion, but former Coordinating Minister for the Economy
Finance and Industry, Kwik Kian Gie, argued they were only worth
Rp 20 trillion.

The agency expects to sell the assets over the next four years
through initial public offerings, direct placements and auctions.

To meet IBRA's 2001 sales target, Cacuk said, the agency also
would rely on its Asset Management Investment (AMI) division and
sales of nationalized banks.

IBRA's assets, he said, would be sold retail instead of in
packages, because companies sold individually might yield higher
proceeds.

According to him, the agency had already achieved Rp 12
trillion in revenues through September.

He said that out of IBRA's 21 largest debtors, 71.5 percent of
their total outstanding debts had been restructured.

"We've signed a memorandum of understanding with these
debtors, and it (the debt restructuring) has now reached 71.5
percent, so we have already met our target as set out in the
Letter of Intent (LoI)," Cacuk said of the LoI signed between the
government and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Under the agreement with the IMF, 70 percent of the debtors'
outstanding debts under IBRA must be restructured by
October.(bkm)