0 Mandiri, BNI boost investment loans

Trading, infrastructure and manufacturing remain the preferred sectors for local banks to expand their investment loans. State-owned Bank Mandiri’s president director Zulkifli Zaini said in Jakarta on Wednesday that along with trading, infrastructure and manufacturing would remain the most promising sectors for investment loans. With such promising opportunities, Bank Mandiri planned to increase investment loans to these business sectors by between 20 percent and 22 percent this year. 

“Our outstanding investment loans reached a total of about Rp 400 trillion [US$41.28 billion]. A projected 20 percent investment loan growth equals between Rp 70 trillion and Rp 80 trillion,” he told The Jakarta Post in Jakarta on Wednesday. Around 80 percent of the investment loans from the bank go to the productive sectors of manufacturing, plantation, telecommunications and infrastructure. “As part of our prudential banking procedures, we spread our investment loans quite evenly among these sectors. 

Each key sector makes up no more than 15 percent of our lending portfolio,” he said. Bank Mandiri provides the investment loans to roughly 20 large groups of enterprises. However, the groups make up no more than 20 percent of the bank’s lending portfolio. According to Zulkifli, the banking sector is still the number one financing option. As of November 2012, the total amount of bank loans disbursed in the country accounted for 60.6 percent of total financing. 

Government bonds made up 19.1 percent, followed by stock issuances at 13.1 percent and corporate bonds at 7.2 percent. Meanwhile, data from Bank Indonesia shows that as of November last year, the trade sector received the most bank loans with Rp 520.3 trillion, while manufacturing and business services received Rp 429.2 trillion and Rp 270.1 trillion, respectively. Bank Mandiri would maintain the size of its loans portfolio at a certain percentage as part of its risk management, Zulkifli said. 

The bank also aims at establishing its net non-performing loan (NPL) ratio at 0.4 percent. Separately, Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) president director Gatot Suwondo said that his bank would focus on funding eight sectors, which he claimed as the leading sectors in the country’s economy. The sectors comprise agriculture; communications; electricity; retailers and wholesalers; oil, gas and mining; engineering and construction; food and beverage; and chemicals.

source : the jakarta post