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)