Unibank to sell 70m new shares

JAKARTA (JP): Unibank, a banking arm of the Garuda Mas business group, plans to offer 70 million new shares to strengthen its capital structure.

The bank's president Odang Kariana said Thursday that the shares to be offered to the public would account for 34.5 percent of its enlarged capital.

He said the shares, each with a par value of Rp 500, would be sold to investors at between Rp 600 and Rp 800 each during the initial public offering (IPO) later this month.

"We expect to raise between Rp 45 billion to Rp 50 billion (around US$20.8 million) from the IPO," he said.

Odang said 50 percent of the IPO proceeds would be used to expand the bank's long and medium term loans, 20 percent to expand its branches, 25 percent to increase on-line computer technology and 5 percent to improve human resources.

He said annual dividend payments for 1997, 1998 and 1999 would be set at 21 percent of the IPO price.

"If the bank's net profit is not enough to cover the dividend payout target, founders will provide the balance to the public investors," he said.

Makindo Securities will be the lead underwriter for the bank's IPO.

Odang said Unibank would continue to focus its loan portfolio on housing credits, especially to help borrowers buying their first house.

"We do not allocate credits for second or third homes," he said after the bank's public presentation yesterday.

He said this year, the bank's credits were expected to grow by around 25 percent to Rp 250 billion, of which around 40 percent would be allocated for home loans.

"The central bank has approved such growth," he said.

Bank Indonesia, the central bank, limits the overall lending growth to between 17 percent and 18 percent.

As of December 1996, the bank's outstanding loans reached Rp 819 billion, up from 756.4 billion in 1995.

He said 64.18 percent of loans would be mature in less than one year, 8 percent between two and three years, 9.08 percent between four and five years and 18.74 percent in more than five years.

Unibank, which had accumulated total assets worth Rp 1.6 trillion as of December 1996, recorded a net profit of Rp 11.7 billion in 1996.

Odang said the pre-tax profit recorded in the first quarter of 1997 was Rp 5.69 billion. He did not disclose the projected net profit this year.

Sumitplast

PT Sumitplast Interbenua, a subsidiary of the publicly listed PT Dynaplast, also plans to sell a portion of its shares to the public.

"We are still waiting for approval from the capital market supervision agency (Bapepam)," President of PT Dynaplast Tony T. Hambali said after its annual shareholder meeting Thursday.

Sumitplast is 30 percent owned by PT Dynaplast, 10 percent by the Sumitomo Corporation of Japan and 40 percent by Panca Teladan who also plans to float shares on the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

He refused to disclose the amount of shares to be offered to the public. (09)