NISP to open 30 new bank branches

Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Mid-sized Bank NISP said it would open more than 30 new branches in Java, Sumatra, Sulawesi, Bali and Kalimantan this year in a bid to boost its retail operation.

"We haven't established offices in Kalimantan and Sulawesi. So we will establish about 10 offices in each. We expect to complete the project in the third or fourth quarter," NISP president Pramukti Surjaudaja told The Jakarta Post on Thursday following a shareholders meeting.

In March 2003, NISP, whose headquarters are located in Bandung, West Java, had 100 branch offices in Java, Sumatra and Bali.

The publicly-listed bank focuses its business on providing loans to small and medium-sized businesses, which account for around 70 percent of its loan exposure.

"This year, we have targeted a 20-30 percent increase in lending," said Ferdinand Dion, an officer at the bank's corporate communications.

According to its financial report, in 2002 its net loans totaled Rp 6.2 trillion (about US$740 million).

In the first quarter of this year, NISP increased its lending by 49 percent to Rp 6.29 trillion from Rp 4.23 trillion in the same period last year.

In the shareholders meeting, the 62-year-old bank also reported a 29 percent increase in 2002 net profit to Rp 92 billion from Rp 71 billion in 2001.

Shareholders approved the management proposal to allocate 21 percent of the 2002 net profit as dividend.