No ownership change in BII despite Widjaja's removal

JAKARTA (JP): The share ownership composition of publicly listed PT Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) has not changed, despite the removal of the Widjaja family from the bank's management, according to the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX).

"The share composition remains the same as that after the bank's rights issue in July," the JSX said in a statement on Monday, after it received an explanation from BII regarding the bank's share composition and management reshuffle.

The Widjaja family still holds a 27.12 percent stake, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency 57.14 percent and the public 15.74 percent, the JSX said.

Bank Indonesia announced last week the removal of Indra Widjaja and his father Eka Tjipta from their respective positions as the bank's president and chief commissioner. The removal was made because the father and son did not pass a "fit and proper test" carried out by the central bank.

"The fit and proper test only affects the company's management, not the company's share ownership," the JSX said, assuring that the Widjajas' failure in the test would not affect the bank's share-holding composition.

The JSX said that BII needed to find a replacement for the outgoing Widjaja family.

BII had told JSX officials that it would announce the bank's new management and members of board of commissioners soon, the JSX said.

The Widjajas' are no longer qualified to be in any position directly relating to the management or supervision of BII because of their failure to abide by the legal lending limit.

According to the central bank's legal lending limit, a domestic bank can only lend credit of up to 20 percent of its net equity to an unrelated party, or only 10 percent of the equity to the related party such as businesses owned by shareholders of the bank.

The JSX said that BII's loans, mostly in foreign currencies, extended to the Widjajas' businesses exceeded the legal lending limit particularly due to the sharp decline in rupiah against the U.S. dollar.

The trading of BII shares was suspended last Wednesday, but restarted trading on Monday following the bank's explanation regarding the management reshuffle and the share composition of the bank.

BII shares closed at Rp 150, down by Rp 25 from Rp 125 on Tuesday's close.

BII is one of several listed banks qualified for the government-sponsored program.

The founder and the investing public provided 40 percent of the capital requirement needed to lift BII's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) to 4 percent in the recapitalization program, while the government agreed to inject the remaining 60 percent. (udi)