BNI plans acquisition, Mandiri sets eyes on lower dividends for 2012

JAKARTA. Three of Indonesia’s top banks are planning acquisitions, subordinated debt and lowering dividend payouts to push lending and maintain the robust loan growth of 2011.

PT Bank Mandiri (Persero) Tbk, the largest lender by assets, wants to lower its dividend payout ratio, but if it fails, the bank will go for a so-called “subdebt” to boost capitalization and have steady loan growth of more than 20 percent, president director Zulkifli Zaini said.

Mandiri’s consolidated lending grew 27 percent in 2011, higher than its 23 percent target, and Zulkifli said the bank targeted 20 to 22 percent further loan growth this year.

For every 1 percent loan growth, the bank’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) would slide by 0.07 percentage point, Zulkifli added. The lender’s CAR stood at 17 percent as of the end of last year.

“But it seems that the decreasing CAR trend is pretty fast. So we are assessing when Bank Mandiri will need additional capital, which might be done with subdebt,” Zulkifli told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

“On the other hand, we would ask State-Owned Enterprises Ministry for permission to lower our dividend payout ratio from 35 percent — the highest among all state banks — to 20 percent.”

Indonesia’s fourth-largest lender, PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk, favors inorganic growth as it plans to acquire a smaller bank with a focus on micro lending, president director Gatot Suwondo said.

“Our economically sound minimum loan is currently above Rp 300 million, approaching Rp 350 million, while there is strong demand for loans under that value. We intend to tap those through a new unit, so we are seeking possibilities to acquire [a bank],” he explained.

BNI targets 19 to 20 percent in lending this year, within the range of this year’s expected 17 to 21 percent loan growth. “[Loan growth for 2011] is more than that targeted,” Gatot said. As of the third quarter of this year, the bank booked 27 percent growth in lending.

PT Bank Central Asia Tbk, the nation’s largest private lender and the biggest bank by market capitalization, also saw higher loan growth than targeted in 2011 as lending grew 31 percent during the year, compared with the 20 to 24 percent target, CEO Jahja Setiaatmadja said.

“The dominant growth was seen in mortgages as they soared 50 percent. Automotive loans also increased 27 percent,” he explained. Besides consumer loans, strong demand for corporate and commercial loans also boosted BCA’s loan growth, Jahja added.

As per November 2011, Indonesia’s overall bank lending grew at an average rate of 26 percent, and Bank Indonesia (BI) said a similar growth rate of 24 to 27 percent would be required to support the economy to grow by 6.3 to 6.7 percent in 2012.

Indonesian banks have been the darlings of the nation’s stock market in the past year as the country’s economic acceleration means the need for financing also increased — translating to robust loan growth of more than 20 percent since 2010.

Market capitalizations of Mandiri and BCA have climbed to the top 10 among all 442 listed companies. Shares of the two lenders, and BNI, outperformed the broader stock index since a year ago.

BCA’s shares (BBCA) soared 33.6 percent to Rp 7,950 apiece on Monday, while Mandiri’s stocks (BMRI) jumped 21.4 percent to Rp 6,700 per share and BNI’s shares (BBNI) gained 12.9 percent to Rp 3,700 per piece. All of those compared with the Jakarta Composite Index’s (JCI) 10.6 percent increase. (Esther Samboh/The Jakarta Post)