Perdana to launch housing loan

JAKARTA (JP): Perdana Finance, a subsidiary of the publicly listed Perdana Cipta Multi Finance, will launch a 25-year home loan in July.

Perdana president Hasan Krisno said yesterday the loan package, aimed at people wanting to buy medium and large houses, would be for between Rp 25 million (US$10,400) and Rp 1 billion.

Hasan said Perdana would be the first multifinance company to offer a 25-year home loan. Other home loans have a maturity of up to 15 years.

"We want to provide housing loans that are affordable to customers because the price of land will continuously rise," he said.

Hasan said his company was expected to provide between Rp 150 billion and Rp 200 billion in new loans this year.

To finance the project the company planned to issue five-year bonds to raise between Rp 100 billion and Rp 200 billion this year, he said.

"About 60 percent of the funding for the home loans will come from commercial banks," he said.

Hasan said borrowers of the new loan would only pay half of the insurance premium because his firm would pay the other 50 percent.

Perdana Finance will cooperate with several housing developers including Jaya Group, PT Putra Alvita Pratama and Bumi Serpong Damai in marketing the new loan.

He said several large developers like Gading Serpong, Limus Pratama, Mitra Bahari, Oasis Apartment, Kota Taman, Permata Bandara, Puri Metropolitan, and Menteng Metropolitan had expressed interest in joining the new scheme.

Hasan said his company's assets rose 10 percent last year from about Rp 666.1 billion in 1995. He said net profit rose 25 percent from Rp 9.8 billion in 1995.

He predicted the company's equity would rise 20 percent to about Rp 150 billion this year. (02)