OCBC Targets Commonwealth Bank Acquisition To Be Completed Quarter II-2024

Cooperation (Photo: dock. Unsplash)

JAKARTA - PT OCBC NISP Tbk (OCBC) targets the acquisition process of PT Bank Commonwealth to be completed in the second quarter of 2024, after obtaining approval at the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGMS).

"We hope that this acquisition process, after we get approval from the GMS, we hope it can be completed in the second quarter of this year," said PT OCBC NISP Tbk (OCBC) President Director Parwati Surjaudaja quoting Antara.

When the acquisition process has been completed, Parwati said that a merger or merger process will be carried out which is expected to be completed in the second half or the second half of this year.

According to him, the acquisition process is still in its early stages, so the company has not been able to share the bank's business plan (RBB) in more detail. Even so, the company hopes that the merger of the two banks will increase the OCBC Indonesia business scale.

Meanwhile, Commonwealth Bank itself has an attractive and complementary client base in the consumer and SME (retail) customer segment. Parwati views that the merger of the two banks is an effort to develop OCBC which is sustainable in the long term, not only in the short term.

"We hope that the synergy in the retail and SME fields will become something that we will pay attention to in the future. Apart from of course, the synergy of various capabilities that can be carried out between the two institutions," said Parwati.

When asked about other corporate action plans, Parwati said that her party currently does not have a plan to spin-off or separate the sharia business unit (UUS), because it is considered that it is still quite far from fulfilling the provisions set by the regulator.

"We don't have any plans to spin-off sharia because according to the provisions it is still quite far from the threshold. And we also see good synergy, where UUS as part of PT Bank OCBC NISP Tbk can be a good synergy in terms of providing a more complete solution to the community," said Parwati.

Previously, on November 16, 2023, OCBC signed a Sale and Purchase Agreement (SPA) with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) to purchase 99 percent of shares in PT Bank Commonwealth (PTBC) from CBA. OCBC Indonesia also intends to acquire the remaining 1 percent of PTBC shares from other shareholders.

OCBC posted a net profit of IDR 4.1 trillion for the 2023 financial year or grew by 23 percent on an annual basis (yoy), so that the yield for equity (ROE) rose to 12 percent. The OCBC recorded a total bank asset of IDR 250 trillion.

Total credit provided by banks reached IDR 154.1 trillion or grew 12 percent, with better quality where the gross NPL ratio fell to 1.6 percent.

Meanwhile, total customer deposits or third party funds (DPK) increased 3 percent to Rp181.8 trillion. This DPK growth was supported by CASA or giro and savings, so that the CASA to total DPK ratio increased to 55.8 percent.

According to the company, banks also have strong capital to support future growth as reflected in the increasing capital adequacy ratio or CAR to 23.7 percent.