Lippo case not to dent revenue target: IBRA
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) remains upbeat about meeting its full-year revenue target as stated in the 2003 state budget, despite missing out on potential proceeds from the sale of its stake in Bank Lippo after the postponing divestment of the stake until next year.
"We will be trying hard to contribute to the state coffers as targeted by the state budget. We still have around two months to meet the target," IBRA chairman Syafruddin Temenggung said on Friday.
Under the state budget, the agency has to collect Rp 26 trillion (US$3.06 billion) in revenue to help finance the state budget deficit, which is expected to be around Rp 34.4 trillion.
Some Rp 21.3 trillion of the target should come in the form of cash, while the remainder in the form of government bonds redeemed from the banking sector.
Syafruddin said that so far, some Rp 17 trillion had been channeled to the government, with Rp 14 trillion of it being in cash and the rest in bonds.
He did not elaborate from what sources the agency would make up the shortfall of Rp 9 trillion.
On Thursday, IBRA had to postpone the sale of a 52 percent stake in publicly listed Bank Lippo as the bidding prices offered by three potential buyers were all too low.
This has prompted concerns over the agency's ability to collect the targeted revenue in time. Proceeds from the Lippo sale should have been above Rp 1 trillion.
According to IBRA, the postponement was unavoidable as the prices submitted by the three shortlisted consortia were below the rebid price range target of between Rp 384 and Rp 591 per share, determined earlier by the agency.
The rebid price range was set by IBRA after the three consortia, in their preliminary bids, submitted bidding prices that were lower than the floor price of Rp 591 per share.
The government gave no official reason as to why the bidding prices were so low, but State Minister of State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi suspected that the bank's former shareholders might have had something to do with it.
"Potential investors probably feel uncomfortable with the presence of the old shareholders. But I still haven't received the full reports," Laksamana said.
The agency holds a 54.9 percent stake in the bank, with the rest owned by the public (35.5 percent) and Lippo E-Net (9.6 percent).
The latter represents the bank's former owner, the Riyadi family.
"But still, if the price is not right, we're obviously not going to sell," Laksamana added.
On Friday, the first day after the postponement, market players in the Jakarta Stock Exchange dumped Lippo shares. The bank closed the day at Rp 475 per share, a 17 percent drop from the closing of Rp 575 on Thursday.