Mashill's merger will be decided later this month

Mashill's merger will be decided later this month

JAKARTA (JP): Shareholders of the publicly listed Bank Mashill
are to hold an extraordinary meeting later this month to decide
the bank's plan to merge with three other local banks.

Dradjat Bagus Prasetyo, the bank's newly appointed president
said on Saturday that the merger with Jayabank International,
Bank Artamedia and Bank Ciputra would be necessary to boost the
bank's competitiveness in facing the stiffer competition in the
country's banking industry.

"If the merger plan is approved, the merged bank would have a
better capital structure," he said.

Dradjat was appointed as the bank's president at an
extraordinary meeting on Monday, replacing Agustinus Tjiptoutojo
Windoe.

The four medium-sized banks announced in August that they had
agreed in principle to merge through a share swap, which would be
based on an adjusted equity value and leave Bank Mashill as the
surviving bank.

Under the initial merger agreement, Jayabank's shareholders
will control 23.67 percent of the merged bank, Bank Artamedia
23.67 percent, Bank Ciputra 11.07 percent and Bank Mashill the
remaining 41.59 percent.

The banks also agreed that stakes controlled by Bank Mashill's
existing shareholders would be diluted proportionally after the
conclusion of the merger later this month.

This means that the stake of the main shareholder, PT Mashill
Jaya Asia, will be reduced to 15.33 percent in the new bank from
40.68 percent prior to the merger; Bank Brussels Lambert's stake
will be trimmed to 8.26 percent from 18.10 percent currently; PT
Putra Kartawisejati to 3.89 percent from 10.32 percent and the
public to 12.12 percent from 30.90 percent.

Bank Mashill, which recorded a pretax profit of Rp 27 billion
last year, is currently 18.10 percent owned by Belgian Bank
Brussels Lambert, 51 percent by the Karta Wijaya family and the
remaining by the public. (aly)