S

tate insurance company PT Jamsostek plans to acquire stakes in two local sharia banks this year through a joint agreement with the Jeddah-based Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector (ICD).

The new investment arm of the company, the Jamsostek Investment Company (JIC), expected to be established in the first semester of this year, will purchase the stake of the country's biggest sharia lender BNI Syariah and Bank Syariah Bukopin by the end of this year, Jamsostek president director Hotbonar Siaga said on Friday.

"We are in the process of establishing the JIC. The state SOE minister requested that we do the presentation next week," he said.

Under the acquisition plan, Hotbonar said the JIC would take over more than 50 percent of Bank Syariah Bukopin's shares and between 20 to 30 percent of the BNI stake.

Jamsostek currently holds a 9 percent stake in Bukopin, but nothing in BNI Syariah. However, the parent company of the ICD and the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has made an agreement with BNI to become the strategic partner of the latter's sharia division.

"There is a possibility the ICD will replace the IDB as the strategic partner of BNI Syariah," he said, adding that would mean Jamsostek would have the chance to buy the BNI sharia stake through the islamic corporation.

But if that option is not available, Jamsostek will make an offer to BNI sharia to become a strategic partner for the bank along with the IDB, said Hotbonar.

For Bukopin, the JIC will take over more than 41 percent of shares from the expected rights issue offers that will be carried out by the bank.

However, when asked about the acquisition value, Hotbonar refused specify a figure, saying that it would depend on the banks' book value.

"We are still calculating," he said.

Meanwhile, Jamsostek estimates the establishment of the JIC will require a total investment of Rp 1 trillion (US$109 million), for which Jamsostek and the ICD will cover 50 percent each.

For this year, Hotbonar said the company had allocated Rp 8.09 billion as an initial investment for the JIC.

He said that Jamsostek targeted to manage funds worth Rp 90 trillion this year, a 15 percent increase in comparison to last year.

From that amount, Jamsostek will increase the shares-related investment portion to 20 percent, up from 16.5 percent.

For other investment options, the company will put 50 percent of the money in bonds and 30 percent in deposits.

Meanwhile, its move to acquire sharia banks' assets is believed to be part of the company's effort to enter the growing sharia banking industry in Indonesia

Over the last five years, sharia banking has posted an average growth of 34 percent annually in terms of loans, funds and assets. That's above the rate of growth in conventional banks, whose growth in credit and funds stood at 25 percent and 19 percent, respectively, over the same period.