Compared To The Shares Purchased By Chairul Tanjung, Bank Bengkulu Is Advised To Seek Funds Through An IPO

Bengkulu Bank Building. (Photo: Bank Bengkulu)

JAKARTA - Economic observer, Bayu Saputra, assessed that it is time for Bengkulu Bank to become a public company by releasing some of its shares on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).

Bayu said, the move was taken to save the bank from going down caste to become a people's credit bank (BPR) because it was unable to meet the core capital to become a commercial business activity bank (BUKU) II.

Previously, Bengkulu Bank was given a deadline until the end of December to fulfill a core capital of IDR 1 trillion in accordance with OJK regulation number 12 / POJK.03 / 2020 concerning the consolidation of commercial banks if they do not want to go down the caste to become a BPR.

According to Bayu, by becoming a publicly traded company, Bank Bengkulu will have no difficulty meeting the company's core capital requirements, rather than asking for financial support from investors or private equity.

"In the capital market there are already many investors, both domestic and foreign. If you go public, the core capital can actually increase quickly because Rp1 trillion is a small amount of capital in the capital market," said Bayu as quoted by Antara, Friday, November 20.

Bayu assessed that overall Bengkulu Bank is ready to become a public company by releasing some of its shares to the capital market. This can be seen from the bank's financial statements and reports on the implementation of good corporate governance (GCG) which continue to show positive developments.

This was confirmed by the Head of the Financial Services Authority (OJK) Bengkulu Representative Tito Adji. Tito, when contacted by telephone, Thursday said that Bank Bengkulu is currently in a healthy condition because its growth continues to show a positive trend.

Data from the OJK Representative of Bengkulu stated that as of September 2020 the total assets of Bank Bengkulu had grown by 24.84 percent. Likewise, the bank's third party funds grew 37.27 percent and total credit increased by 12.44 percent. In addition, the number of non-performing loans (NPL) of Bank Bengkulu decreased by 1.03 percent.

"It takes courage for the management to go public because if a company goes public it is obliged to disclose information. So whatever form of internal information it must be shown up or announced to the public," said Bayu.

He added that currently many regional bank companies have listed their shares to be traded on the capital market, one of which is Bank Jabar, Bank Banten and Bank Jatim.

The three banks, said Bayu, accelerated the addition of the company's core capital to meet the requirements for a commercial bank for business activities (BUKU) by selling their shares to the capital market.

Where, based on OJK regulation number 12 / POJK.03 requires that every bank wishing to maintain its status as a commercial bank must increase its core capital by IDR 1 trillion per year.

"The regional government as the main shareholder should not release the majority share, just release 20 to 30 percent. So the decision making is still in the hands of the local government," said Bayu.