INDONESIA - BANKING - Maybank Optimistic It Will Maintain Control of BII

www.thejakartaglobe.com - Kuala Lumpur. Malayan Banking is convinced that it will be able to keep its controlling stake in Bank Internasional Indonesia despite the recent change in bank ownership rules in Indonesia.

Maybank, which bought BII in 2008, owns 97.3 percent of Indonesia’s eighth-largest lender.

Last Tuesday, BII reported that it recorded a 61 percent increase in net income during the first half.

Three weeks ago, Indonesia’s central bank issued new rules limiting ownership in domestic banks at 40 percent. However, it said it would allow waivers if the owners were listed banks that maintained high levels of corporate governance and were in sound financial health. (source)


“We have been engaging with Bank Indonesia ... we should qualify for the waiver,” Maybank president and chief executive Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar said last Monday.

BII’s net income during the first six months of the year came in at Rp 592 billion ($63 million), its highest since 1997, on the back of solid growth across its core businesses and improved asset quality.

Loans grew by 24 percent from a year earlier to Rp 73.5 trillion, with global wholesale banking loans accounting for 38 percent of the increase, consumer loans 36 percent, and loans for small and medium enterprises at 25 percent.

By comparison, Indonesia’s largest bank by assets, Bank Mandiri, on Monday turned in a 13 percent rise in first-half net income to Rp 7.1 trillion. Bank Mandiri’s loans for the period increased by 27 percent to Rp 350.4 trillion.

BII’s net non-performing loan level rose to 0.98 percent through the end of June, compared with 1.22 percent a year earlier. The bank’s net interest income rose 32 percent, to Rp 2.6 trillion.

Despite strong competition among banks in Indonesia, BII managed to improve its net interest margin to 5.89 percent from 5.43 percent a year before.

Its fee-based income fell by 8 percent mainly due to a reduction of loan administration fees related to its subsidiary, which consolidated its motorcycle financing with the aim of improving asset quality.

“The bank has also been able to record an annualized double-digit return on equity of 15.72 percent, which is the first for the bank since 1997,” BII president director Khairussaleh Ramli said.

“The improved performance demonstrates that our long journey and efforts in regaining our growth momentum have now started to bear fruit.”

Source:  http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/corporatenews/maybank-optimistic-it-will-maintain-control-of-bii/535763 - August 6, 2012