Supreme Court turns down Amex bankruptcy appeal

JAKARTA (JP): The Supreme Court has turned down an appeal by the Singapore office of the American Express Bank (Amex) to declare the publicly listed firm PT Ometraco Corporation bankrupt.

The Supreme Court said in its verdict on Tuesday that the appeal had been rejected because the debt claimed by the plaintiff had not yet matured.

"The loan Ometraco Corporation obtained from the plaintiff has not matured yet," the court said in the ruling.

The Supreme Court said that Ometraco's debt would fall due on Dec. 3 this year, but the plaintiff maintained in its claim filed in September that the loan matured on Jan. 7 this year.

"The debt has not fallen due and the claim is therefore considered premature," the court said.

Amex Singapore appealed to the Supreme Court early last month after the Jakarta Commercial Court refused to declare the publicly listed PT Ometraco Corporation bankrupt.

Presiding judge Joedijono said in a ruling early last month that the insolvency claim brought by the bank could not be accepted because its charges overlapped with a previous claim made against the same company.

Amex brought the bankruptcy claim against Ometraco in early September after the latter failed to repay a US$50 million loan.

But the court rejected the bankruptcy petition on the grounds that Amex and a number of other creditors had already filed a suit against PT Ometraco Multi Artha (OMA) for its failure to repay a $125 million loan that was guaranteed by Ometraco, its parent company.

The court said that Ometraco could not be tried on different charges for the same case.

Amex was not satisfied with the ruling and decided to appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Jakarta Commercial Court declared OMA insolvent earlier this month after the latter failed to reach a debt accord with its creditors.

The court turned down a request for a permanent suspension of payment order submitted by OMA after creditors voiced their objection to the proposal.

Prior to being declared insolvent, OMA had been given 45 days to restructure its debts with creditors before resorting to a request for a permanent suspension of payment order. (aly)