BANK RAKYAT INDONESIA TO ISSUE BONDS

ANYER, West Java-
PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) plans to issue bonds worth no less than Rp2 trillion (US$194 million) in the second semester this year to increase its capital and credit distribution.

"We have already made preparations for it," the bank`s head of planning and strategy division, Irianto, said in a press gathering here on Saturday.

He said he still had yet to wait for the financial report for the first semester at the end of June before implementing the plan.

He said it would take around one and a half months or two months to audit the first semester`s financial report and therefore the issuance of the bonds would only be done after July.

Irianto said no decision had been made yet on whether the bond would mature in five or ten years.

He said BRI had actually planned to issue bonds several semesters before but because economic conditions were not supportive the plan had been delayed.

The bank`s head of investor relationship desk, Haru Koesmahargiyo, said BRI until March 2009 still performed well growing above the average national banks.
"BRI`s assets grew 24.78 percent, third party funds up 27.23 percent and credit rose 39.51 percent while profit increased 22.02 percent," he said.

Haru said the value of BRI`s asssets reached Rp250.14 trillion while its outstanding credit Rp165.23 trillion, third-party funds Rp203.11 trillion and net profit Rp1.72 trillion.

The bank`s capital adequacy ratio was recorded at 14.91 percent while its non-performing loan 3.24 percent and its loan to deposit ratio at 81.35 percent.