Universal gets $48m from IPO

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Universal announced yesterday that it raised about Rp 168.75 billion (US$48 million) from its initial public offering (IPO).

The bank said it sold 250 million new shares or about 26.2 percent of its enlarged shares at Rp 675 each during the IPO, which it claimed was 1.09 times oversubscribed.

The offering period started on Sept. 18 and closed on Sept. 22 while the listing will be made today.

"We are very pleased to have completed this transaction in what could only be described as a difficult market. As we had expected, the issue was primarily subscribed to by domestic investors," Stephen Z. Satyahadi, the bank's president, said.

The bank's local demand was equal to 89.3 percent of total demand, but due to the oversubscription, this was scaled down to 88.2 percent of the allotment.

In accordance with Capital Market Supervisory Agency regulations, the fixed allotment accounted for a maximum of 60 percent of the issue, with the remaining in the pooled allotment.

The pooled allotment was oversubscribed by 16.4 percent or over 23.27 million shares.

The split between retail and institutional interest after allotment was reduced to 49.6 percent and 50.4 percent of the demand, from the allocated 53 percent and 46.5 percent.

Managing underwriters for the issue were PT SBC Warburg Indonesia and PT Bahana Securities. Colead underwriters were PT Astra Securities and PT Mitra Dutasekuritas.

The issue was underwritten by 45 members of the Jakarta and Surabaya stock exchanges.

Bank Universal is the flagship of PT Astra International's financial service division. The Astra Group retained a 70.1 percent shareholding in the bank after the IPO.

From 1992 to 1996, its management achieved compound annual growth rates of 65 percent in net profit and 27 percent in assets.

The bank had Rp 3.5 trillion in assets as of Dec.31, 1996, making it the 12th largest bank in Indonesia among 164 private banks. The bank's assets stood at Rp 4.3 trillion as of June 30, 1997. (08)