P

T Bank Pembangunan Daerah Jawa Timur (Bank Jatim), which began trading on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) of Thursday, says its lending in the first half has reached 94 percent of its full-year target.

Bank Jatim president director Hadi Sukrianto said that the bank’s total lending touched Rp 18 trillion (US$1.9 billion) in the first half of 2012, up 12 percent from the same period last year, which was attributed to strong demand from small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

“Although we have reached a significant milestone in the first half of the year, we will not increase our year-end target of Rp 19 trillion,” Hadi said at the IDX on Thursday. “Our SME credits were about 83 percent of our total lending.”

Bank Jatim was formally known as the East Java Regional Development Bank and was founded in 1961 in Surabaya, East Java. It reported Rp 16 trillion in lending last year, with Rp 13.5 trillion in loans to SMEs.

The bank said it had 292,823 SME clients as of the end of 2011.

Hadi said that Bank Jatim’s had booked net profits of Rp 500 billion during the January to June period.

The bank has targeted booking Rp 1.2 trillion in net profits by the year end, which would be a 39 percent increase over the Rp 860 billion recorded last year. The bank’s net interest income stood at Rp 1.94 trillion in 2011, according to reports.

The bank’s non-performing loan rate (NPL) was below 2 percent and its capital adequacy ratio (CAR) currently stood at about 22 percent, according to Hadi.

Bank Jatim said that it would remain focused on its established customer base in East Java, although it now had a larger opportunity to raise funds from the capital markets to support lending growth nationwide.

“We still have a captive market that can still be developed in East Java. However, we also have several syndicated loans for government projects, including power plants and toll roads,” Hadi said.

Bank Jatim officially floated its shares on the IDX on Thursday, after selling 2.98 billion shares, or about 20 percent of its enlarged capital, to the public last week.

The bank pocketed Rp 1.28 trillion from the stock sale, of which about 80 percent would be used to support credit expansion, 10 percent to improve its network and 10 percent to finance IT systems development.

Shares in Bank Jatim (BJTM) traded at Rp 430 apiece during the IPO. On Thursday, trading opened at Rp 470, up 9.3 percent from the IPO price.

East Java Governor Soekarwo, who attended Bank Jatim’s listing ceremony, said that the bank would have its work cut out for it in maintaining its performance after its listing on the bourse.

“This is not only about dividends for shareholders, but how far the bank will be able to go to disburse funds gained from IPO to support its credits to SMEs,” Soekarwo said.

“The finance sector is the backbone of other sectors. If we have a strong financial company, particularly a bank disbursing loans to SMEs, we will be able to take other companies public,” Soekarwo said.

The Jakarta Composite Index (JCI), opened at 4,013.16 on Thursday, slightly lower than its close on Wednesday at 4,019.13. The index closed at 3,984.12, down 0.87 percent from a day earlier.

— JP/Raras Cahyafitri