PPA says 32 investors vying for Permata
PPA says 32 investors vying for Permata
Rendi A. Witular
Jakarta
Some 32 strategic local and overseas investors are expected to
join the tender for a controlling stake in Bank Permata, the
country's seventh largest lender in terms of assets, an official
said.
President director of government asset management firm PT
Pengelola Aset (PPA) Mohammad Syahrial said the 32 investors
consisted of 20 foreign and 12 local investors, 90 percent of
which were banks or financial consortia and the remaining were
investment firms.
"Thus far, we have around 32 strategic investors that have
expressed serious interest in the Permata stake," Syahrial told
reporters after attending a PPA investor forum on Thursday.
The government, which has a 97.17 percent stake in publicly
listed Permata, plans to sell 71 percent of its stake later this
year to raise cash to help finance the state budget deficit.
However, the government has yet to decide whether it will sell
the 71 percent stake to strategic investors, or sell a part of
the shares to investors in the stock market.
Syahrial said that the strategic investors had asked the
government to sell the whole 71 percent.
PPA is scheduled to hold a road show in Singapore, Malaysia,
Hong Kong and United Kingdom next week to market the Permata
stake.
The shares are currently under the management of PPA, a new
entity under the auspices of the Ministry of Finance which was
set up to manage assets previously handled by the now-defunct
Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA).
Meanwhile, State Minister for State Enterprises Laksamana
Sukardi was optimistic that the price for the Permata stake would
be more than 1.8 times its book value because the bank is the
government's last asset sale for this year, with more investors
joining the bidding as they would not want to miss the
opportunity.
The government, which is expected to reap around Rp 3 trillion
from the Permata sale, has extended its schedule to announce the
winner of the bid to December from November, due to the
elections.
Laksamana also said that the government would coordinate with
the central bank to prevent those involved in a legal dispute
over some Rp 546.5 billion (US$61 million) funds in Permata from
buying the stake.
"We will work closely with Bank Indonesia to prevent those
involved in the dispute from buying the stake," said Laksamana.
The case is linked to the 1999 Bank Bali scandal, in which the
funds from Bank Bali were transferred to a firm called PT Era
Giat Prima (EGP), owned by Djoko Tjandra. Djoko was accused of
illegally acquiring the funds from Bank Bali, but the Supreme
Court acquitted him of all criminal charges and called upon IBRA
to return the funds to EGP.
Bank Bali and its assets were subsumed during the merger in
1999 to establish Permata, including the disputed Rp 456.5
billion funds.
IBRA, however, has refused to return the funds, as it would
affect the financial condition of Permata. Djoko took the case to
the State Administrative Court, which ruled in favor of IBRA, but
the Supreme Court overturned the verdict in March.
Investors interested in joining the bid
1. Bank Mandiri
2. Bank Central Asia
3. Bank Rakyat Indonesia
4. Bank Danamon
5. Bank Panin
6. Bank Artha Graha
7. Bank Niaga
8. Bank Buana
9. Bank Multicor
10. PT Jamsostek
11. Temasek (Singapore)
12. Standard Chartered Bank (United Kingdom)
13. Maybank (Malaysia)
14. United Overseas Bank (Singapore)
Permata fact box
-- Bank Permata was set up in 1999, as a result of merger of five
unhealthy banks -- Bank Bali, Bank Universal, Bank Arthamedia,
Bank Prima Express and Bank Patriot.
-- In Indonesian Permata means jewel.
-- The bank has 303 branches all over the country with 457
automatic teller machines.
Financial performance and indicators
2004 (Q1)
Assets Rp 29.7 trillion
Capital Rp 1.84 trillion
Net interest revenue Rp 372 billion
Net profit Rp 127 billion
Non-performing loans (NPL) 8.34%
Capital adequacy ratio (CAR) 12.84%
Return on assets (ROA) 1.8%
Return on equity (ROE) 39%
Loan to deposit ratio (LDR) 44.4%