Which Sharia Bank Will Be Acquired by BTN? Directors: We Can Not Mention Yet

Photo: Doc. Antara

JAKARTA - PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk (BTN) is ready to acquire an Islamic bank before the end of this year. President Director of PT Bank Tabungan Negara (Persero) Tbk (BTN) Nixon Napitupulu said this step was a strategy for separating or spin-off the banking-owned Sharia Business Unit (UUS).

"You can't mention it, it's not BSI (Bank Syariah Indonesia). We spin-off first, there is a PT Bank, because it's impossible for us to pursue a new PT, so we acquire one of the banks and it's sharia," said Nixon after the Mass House Ownership Credit (KPR) Contract at Tangerang, Banten, quoted from Antara, Wednesday, August 9.

Nixon said that the plan was still in the process of agreeing a sale and purchase contract.

"We hope there will be a contract sale and purchase agreement with one of the banks that we are approaching before the end of the year. We are currently negotiating a price with them," said Nixon.

After the acquisition is complete, PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk will enter as a shareholder.

According to Nixon, the spin-off scheme must be carried out first before joining BSI because there is a considerable risk in transferring assets.

"Because it is impossible for us to transfer assets today. There is a big enough risk if the pattern is to transfer assets, so we agreed with SOEs, the pattern is spin-off first, then the equity will be cooperated with BSI," said Nixon.

The rules regarding spin-offs are contained in Financial Services Authority Regulation (OJK) Number 12 of 2023 which states that a UUS has an asset value of 50 percent of its parent or has total assets of at least IDR 50 trillion must separate.

BTN Syariah's net profit grew positively in the first half of 2023. UUS BTN's net profit was recorded to have jumped by almost around 50 percent to IDR 281.21 billion in the first semester of 2023 compared to the same period last year of IDR 190.90 billion.

This positive achievement of BTN Syariah was supported by stable business growth. In semester I-2023, sharia financing was recorded to have grown by around 16 percent to IDR 33.90 trillion compared to the end of June 2022 of IDR 29.24 trillion.

Meanwhile, the total third-party funds (DPK) that BTN Syariah managed to collect during the first semester of 2023 reached IDR 34.93 trillion, growing 14.56 percent compared to the same period last year of IDR 30.49 trillion.

With this achievement, BTN Syariah assets managed to grow 14.69 percent to IDR 46.27 trillion compared to the same period last year of IDR 40.35 trillion.