Asa Chairul Tanjung Buy Bank Bengkulu Shares Even Though The DPRD Opposes

Bengkulu Bank Building. (Photo: Bank Bengkulu)

JAKARTA - The Chairul Tanjung conglomerate through PT Mega Corpora is one step further to purchase shares in one of the regional development banks, namely PT Bank Bengkulu. However, this corporate action met with opposition from the local DPRD.

Even so, the action of the CT Corp owner is certain to continue. The share purchase process is just waiting for the administrative process.

Head of the Corporate Secretary Division of Bank Bengkulu Fanny Irfansyah said that his party had received an official letter of approval for the purchase of the company's shares from Mega Corpora.

"The official letter of approval for the purchase of shares from PT Mega Corpora has been submitted to Bank Bengkulu. We are currently preparing an administrative process for PT MC to deposit funds for the purchase of Bank Bengkulu shares," he told VOI, Wednesday, November 18.

Bengkulu Bank Optimistic Could Become Book Bank II

The President Commissioner (Komut) of Bank Bengkulu, Ridwan Nurazi, denied that there was an issue that Bengkulu Bank was going down caste to become a People's Credit Bank (BPR) which had made a number of customers panic and withdrew their money.

Ridwan asked Bengkulu Bank customers to remain calm and do not believe in the issue, because it is impossible for Bengkulu Bank to downgrade to become a BPR.

The issue of Bengkulu Bank being downgraded to BPR status arose because until now the management has not been able to meet the core capital of Rp1 trillion, which is the requirement for commercial banks for business activities (BUKU) II.

According to Ridwan, currently his party still lacks capital of around Rp. 134 billion to meet core capital in accordance with OJK regulation number 12 / POJK.03 / 2020 concerning commercial bank consolidation.

"In the following year it must be Rp. 2 trillion, the following year it must be Rp. 3 trillion. For this alone we are struggling, right, but later there will be a bank business group KUB," he explained.

Ridwan admitted that his party had made several efforts to fulfill the bank's core capital so that its status could become BUKU II, one of which was by selling series B shares to several large companies in Bengkulu. Including, one of which is to PT Mega Corpora.

Chairul Tanjung conglomerate. (Photo: CT Corp)

This company owned by Chairul Tanjung will deposit funds for the purchase of Bengkulu Bank shares in the not too distant future. Thus, Bank Bengkulu has successfully fulfilled its commitment to reach a core capital of more than IDR 1 trillion to become a BUKU II Bank.

Chairul Tanjung will disburse his money in several stages. For the first phase, PT Mega Corpora will buy Bank Bengkulu shares worth IDR 100 billion and the next phase will be distributed in April 2021.

"Next Monday we will hold a general meeting of shareholders (GMS) and there will be determined all kinds, about two or three days after that the money will come in," said Ridwan.

DPRD Disagrees

Deputy Chairman of the Bengkulu Provincial DPRD Suharto disagrees with the plan of the Bengkulu Bank management to sell some of its shares to PT Mega Corpora owned by national businessman Chairul Tanjung. He assessed that there are many other ways the company can fulfill its core capital, apart from selling shares to companies outside the region.

Suharto was worried that if most of the shares in the bank owned by the Bengkulu Provincial Government were owned by large companies, management authority would become divided and it would be more difficult to include regional interests.

"Those whose names have been invested in an organization, of course they have rights according to the existing portion," said the Gerindra Party politician in Bengkulu, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, November 18.

According to Suharto, the issue of the Bengkulu Bank's shortage of core capital amounting to Rp134 billion can still be handled by the regional government in Bengkulu itself, so it is deemed not necessary to involve other parties. One of them is by encouraging the village government in Bengkulu to invest in Bengkulu Bank by buying shares using village funds.

"It only remains to be asked by the regents to make a regulation so that the village funds can be used to buy Bengkulu Bank shares. In Bengkulu there are 1,600 villages and if each village donates Rp10 million, how much money will that be," he explained.

"If you are only looking for Rp130 billion, it will be small if the DPRD has intervened, because what in Bengkulu there are 10 districts / cities plus provinces, you cannot search that much," he said.

For your information, Bank Bengkulu is not the first BPD purchased by Chairul Tanjung. Previously, he already had shares in two other regional banks, namely PT Bank Central Sulawesi and PT Bank SulutGo. The share ownership in the two banks is 24.90 percent each.