Permata's Q1 net profit rises by 3%

JAKARTA: The seventh largest domestic lender Bank Permata booked a 3.56 percent increase in net profit in the first three months of 2005 on higher interest income and loan expansion.

The bank posted an unaudited net income of Rp 131 billion (US$13.74 million) in the first quarter ending March 31 from Rp 127 billion booked last year, it said in a statement.

Net interest income rose to Rp 404 billion in the year's first quarter from Rp 385 billion in 2004. Outstanding loans at the bank as of March 31 totaled Rp 16.1 trillion, a 52.5 percent increase from the same period a year earlier.

UK-based lender Standard Chartered holds a 31.55 percent of stake in Permata, domestic auto giant PT Astra International controls 31.55 percent and the government has 26.16 percent, while the public holds the rest of the stake. -- JP