State banks form lenders club to deal with Texmaco debts
JAKARTA (JP): Creditors of the Texmaco Group textile conglomerate have agreed to form a "lenders club" in a bid to resolve the group's huge debt problem to four state banks and the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), Minister of Finance Bambang Sudibyo said on Tuesday.
He said Texmaco owed nearly Rp 16 trillion (about US$2.2 billion) in debts to state Bank BNI, Bank BRI, Bank BTN, Bank Mandiri and IBRA.
Of the total debt, Rp 9.65 trillion was owed to Bank BNI, Rp 4.23 trillion to Bank BRI, Rp 574 billion to Bank BTN, Rp 463 billion to Bank Mandiri, and the remaining Rp 1.06 trillion to IBRA.
"They have agreed to form a lenders club," Bambang said, following a working session with House Commission IX for financial and development planning affairs.
Bambang said Bank BNI had been appointed to chair the club.
"They have also proposed to continue the restructuring of Texmaco debts at Bank BNI because they are near completion."
Bambang said he summoned last Saturday the four state banks and IBRA to his office after President Abdurrahman Wahid ordered him to seek a solution to the Texmaco debt problem.
He said Texmaco had total assets of Rp 23.25 trillion, and if compared to its Rp 15.97 trillion loans to the four state banks and IBRA, the group's loan to asset ratio was 68.7 percent.
"This means that the state money used by Texmaco has enough collateral," said Bambang, a National Mandate Party (PAN) executive.
Bambang did not reveal whether he had agreed to any debt restructuring proposal.
But he said the government did not want the debt problem to cause a delay in the state bank recapitalization program or to increase their recapitalization costs.
He also said the restructuring of the Texmaco loans must not cause Texmaco employees to be laid off.
The restructuring, he added, should not disrupt Texmaco operations so that none of the 50,000 workers directly employed and another 100,000 indirectly employed by the group would not lose jobs.
Texmaco was hit by controversy after State Minister of Investment and State Enterprises Development Laksamana Sukardi revealed to the legislature that the integrated textile giant obtained $754.1 million plus Rp 1.9 trillion between late 1997 and March 1998 from Bank BNI in a "national level collusion" with former president Soeharto.
Laksamana said Soeharto personally intervened to allow the huge loan transaction.
Laksamana, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) executive, also said that the loans, which according to Bank BNI fall under the category four loan, or doubtful category, must be transferred to IBRA.
Under the country's bank restructuring and recapitalization program, all bank debts falling under category five, or non- performing loans, must be transferred to IBRA.
Attorney General Marzuki Darusman named Texmaco chief executive officer Marimutu Sinivasan a suspect in the alleged loan scandal. He imposed a travel ban on Sinivasan, as well as two other key Texmaco people: Marimutu Manimaren and S. Wairo.
Sinivasan has told the legislature that the business group was in the process of restructuring its debts to Bank BNI, including a debt to equity swap option.
He also said that once a restructuring deal had been agreed upon, Texmaco would list its textile and chemical subsidiaries on the U.S. Nasdaq bourse. (rei)