NU business wing buys 20 percent of Bank Papan

JAKARTA (JP): The Harawi Sekawan Group, a business unit of the country's largest Moslem organization Nahdlatul Ulama, has purchased a 19.98 percent stake in publicly-listed Bank Papan Sejahtera from international investors SBC Warburg Hong Kong and Somers Far East.

The bank said in a statement on Monday that Harawi Sekawan would coordinate the purchase with the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), Bank Indonesia and other monetary authorities.

Neither the bank nor Harawi Sekawan disclosed the sum for which the stake had been purchased. The price of Bank Papan shares rose Rp 50 to close at Rp 125 in the Jakarta Stock Exchange on Monday.

Bank Papan, formerly controlled by Hashim Djojohadikusumo through the Tirtamas Group (PT Tunasmas Paduarta), was put under the supervision of IBRA after it used government liquidity support amounting to more than 200 percent of its capital.

The bank said Harawi Sekawan was committed to recapitalizing the bank and putting it back onto a sound footing.

The group has also proposed an extraordinary shareholders' meeting to install a new board of commissioners and directors. A date has yet to be set for the meeting.

The revised composition of Bank Papan's ownership is as follows: Harawi Sekawan (19.98 percent); PT Tunasmas Paduarta (19.9 percent); Asuransi Jiwa Bersama Bumiputra (6.8 percent); PT REI Sewindu (6.48 percent); Bank Indonesia (6.17 percent); PT Asuransi Jiwasraya (5.69 percent) and the public (35 percent).

Harawi Sekawan's purchase of a Bank Papan stake comes as a surprise at a time when the banking industry is firmly in the doldrums.

Harawi Sekawan said in the statement that the decision to commit itself to Bank Papan was taken by its chief commissioner Abdurrahman Wahid, who is more popularly known as Gus Dur.

Gus Dur, who also chairs NU, was quoted by the bank as saying that he bought into Bank Papan because "its mission and vision" corresponded to that of his own group.

One common area of interest is in providing low-cost housing finance for average Indonesian families.

Bank Papan, listed on both the Jakarta and Surabaya stock exchanges, has provided more than 100,000 mortgages for low to middle-cost homes.

The bank currently has six branches in Bandung (West Java), Semarang (Central Java), Surabaya (East Java), Palembang (South Sumatra), Medan (North Sumatra) and Ujungpandang (South Sulawesi). It also has five mini-branches in Jakarta.

Harawi Sekawan, established in 1990, is not a new comer to banking. It has been active in the banking business since its inception through Bank Perkreditan Rakyat Nusumma, a secondary bank established in cooperation with the now defunct Bank Summa. (rid)