Salim keeps BCA majority stake

Salim keeps BCA majority stake

JAKARTA (JP): The country's top business tycoon Liem Sioe
Liong, also known as Sudono Salim, still retains a 70 percent
stake in Bank Central Asia (BCA), the country's largest private
bank.

BCA president Abdullah Ali also said yesterday that Sigit
Hajojudanto and Siti Hardijanti Rukmana, children of former
president Soeharto, held a 30 percent stake at the bank.

"BCA is still 70 percent owned by the Salim Group, while the
remaining 30 percent shares are owned by former president
Soeharto's children," Abdullah said.

He said the Salim Group's 70 percent share in BCA was owned by
Salim, one of Soeharto's closest cronies, and his sons Anthony
Salim and Andre Salim.

He also denied rumors that Salim had recently died from
illness in the United States.

He said Salim had been under medical treatment in Los Angeles
over the past three weeks, accompanied by family members, but
that he would soon return to Indonesia.

"Anthoy Salim is scheduled to arrive back in Jakarta today
(yesterday)," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

BCA became one of the main targets during Jakarta's May 14
riots when city residents looted and burned thousands of
buildings to express anger toward the government following the
killing of four student protesters by security forces.

"The rioters demolished 122 of our branch offices. We have yet
to calculate the total losses," Abdullah said, adding that the
damages and looting of its automatic teller machines (ATMs)
totaled at least Rp 3 billion (US$280,000).

BCA depositors have been withdrawing their funds following the
rioting and departure of Soeharto from power.

Abdullah called on BCA depositors to remain calm since their
money was secure under the guarantee of the central bank despite
the riot.

He said BCA had reduced the withdrawal limit for its ATMs due
to cash-flow problems in obtaining funds from the central bank in
the wake of the riot.

"It takes a lot of time to obtain money from the central bank
now. We reduced the maximum amount of money which customers can
withdraw from our ATMs so that they all can equally obtain their
money," he said.

Abdullah, however, declined to state the amount of liquidity
credits the bank was forced to take from Bank Indonesia to keep
it afloat.

Banking sources said if depositors continued to withdraw their
funds from BCA much longer, the bank could be taken over by the
Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) because of the amount
of liquidity credits it was receiving from the central bank.

The move would likely dilute Salim's stake in the bank.

IBRA was set up by the government on Jan. 27 to closely
supervise banks with liquidity problems in an effort to nurse
them back to health.

Forty banks were initially placed under IBRA's supervision,
but the agency later discharged eight banks, including three
state banks, one provincial development bank and four private
banks. (jsk)