PT Pos to buy 20 percent of Bank Rajawali

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Rajawali is waiting for the go-ahead from the Ministry of Finance to sell around 20 percent of the bank to state-owned postal company PT Pos Indonesia.

Director of Bank Rajawali Djunaedi told The Jakarta Post yesterday that negotiations were over and approval from the Ministry of Finance was all that was necessary.

"We are now waiting for the Ministry of Finance's approval," he said on the sidelines of signing of a loan syndication for PT Dharmala Intiland yesterday.

Bank Rajawali has provided loans to PT Dharmala Intiland.

He said the acquisition would hopefully be finalized by the end of this year.

"To be sure, it must be within this year," he said.

He said Bank Rajawali, which is currently 95 percent owned by PT Telekomindo Primabakti and 5 percent by PT Danaswara, had total assets of Rp 500 billion as of 1996.

The bank, which recorded a total paid-up capital of Rp 100 billion as of Dec. 31, 1996, had outstanding credit of Rp 320 billion, with public funds reaching Rp 350 billion.

Djunaedi said the bank plans to become a foreign exchange bank in April this year. "The shareholder will inject another Rp 50 billion in April," he said.

The central bank, Bank Indonesia, stipulates that in order to become a foreign exchange bank, a bank had to increase its paid-up capital to Rp 150 billion.

He said when the transaction was completed the bank's corporate strategy would remain as is, providing credit to corporate and retail markets. "Currently the corporate market accounts for 70 percent of our loans," he said.

He said the corporate market covered the service and manufacturing sectors while the retail market covered small business. He did not elaborate on the value of the bank's loans for each market.

He said when the transaction was finalized, PT Pos Indonesia, a state company under the Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications, would become a minor shareholder. (09)