Tirtamas sells 30 percent share in Bank Niaga
Tirtamas sells 30 percent share in Bank Niaga
JAKARTA (JP): The Tirtamas Group has sold a 30 percent share
in publicly listed Bank Niaga to a group of institutional
investors as part of a consolidation process.
Public relations manager Jannus Hutapea said Friday in a media
statement that the group's financial arm, Tunasmas Panduarta,
retained a 10 percent stake in the large-size bank.
"The resulting structure will see Bank Niaga with a diverse
shareholding base, with no single dominant controlling
shareholder," he said. He added the share placement will be
coordinated by Lippo Securities.
Jannus said the sale was made in order to put Bank Niaga and
its depositors in a stronger position to benefit from the
involvement of a diversified group of Indonesian and
international investors.
The diversified Tirtamas is controlled by Hashim
Djojohadikusumo, a brother of the son-in-law of former president
Soeharto, Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, who was discharged from the
military recently due to his implication in the abduction of
political activists.
Hashim surprised the local financial community in July last
year, at the beginning of the crisis, by buying a 10 percent
stake in Bank Niaga through a public tender offer on the Jakarta
Stock Exchange.
He subsequently announced that he would buy another 40 percent
stake from the Tahija Family.
The plan was not fully realized as the monetary crisis dragged
on, with Hashim eventually adding only a 30 percent stake.
Based on the bank's 1997 financial report, the Tahija Family
retains a 10.49 percent stake, local life insurer AJB Bumiputera
5 percent, Malaysia's RHB Bena Sdn. Bhd. 20 percent, and the
investing public 24.57 percent.
The country's banking sector has been badly hit by the more
than a year-old economic crisis, leading to 34 cash-strapped
banks to fall under the supervision of the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency (IBRA), the closing of 26, and the
nationalization of four others, including the country's two
largest institutions, BCA and Bank Danamon.
Most of the ailing banks received massive liquidity support
from the central bank. Bank Niaga is one of the banks still
considered healthy.
The government is expected to complete the auditing process on
the country's more than 200 commercial banks in October, before
taking another action on banks which may not be able to fulfill
the 4 percent minimum capital adequacy ratio by the end of this
year.
Bank Niaga's president Gunarni Suworo recently said that the
bank was expected to have a net loss in the first quarter of this
year against a net profit of Rp 31.81 billion over the
corresponding period last year.
She said the downturn was due to the increase in the loan-loss
provision to Rp 39.8 billion. (rei)