BCA awaits OJK approval to acquire Bank Royal

BANK - JAKARTA. Bank Central Asia (BCA) is waiting for a green light from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to go ahead with its plan to acquire Bank Royal Indonesia.

"The plan to acquire Bank Royal has been approved by minority shareholders. The next step will be to ask for approval from the OJK,” BCA president director Jahja Setiaatmadja told reporters following the company’s shareholders meeting on Thursday.

Minority shareholders approved the acquisition plan during the meeting. The approval of  minority shareholders was needed, although the founders and other major shareholders had agreed to the acquisition plan.

BCA signed a deal in April to acquire Bank Royal for Rp 1 trillion (US$70 million).  Bank Royal, with total core capital of Rp 330.68 billion of last year, falls in the category of BUKU I banks, or the lowest category of banks.

The bank booked a profit of Rp 857 million in 2018 after a loss of Rp 14.76 billion in 2017. Its  assets also rose 7.22 percent to Rp 968.46 billion last year from Rp 903.21 billion in 2017. Meanwhile, Bank Royal’s loans fell by 1.32 percent to Rp 566.93 billion in 2018 compared to Rp 574.54 billion in 2017.

It was reported previously that BCA would merge Bank Royal with its subsidiary,  Bank BCA Syariah.

In a response to this, Jahja said BCA was in the process of determining its business direction in developing Bank Royal.

“Merging with BCA Syariah could be an option. We are determining the areas most suitable for Bank Royal. It can be in micro business, wealth management small or medium businesses or even digital,” he  said.