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ublicly listed Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) and Bank Central Asia (BCA) will rely on the manufacturing and food and beverage (F&B) sectors to disburse more business banking and corporate loans throughout the year.

According to BNI business banking director Krishna R. Suparto, the state-owned bank is now looking to seal three syndicated loan projects in the manufacturing sector in the second half of the year to help meet the 2013 target.

As the lead arranger for the projects, worth a total of Rp 3 trillion (US$291.88 million), BNI will contribute 60 percent of the total loans disbursed.

The funds will be disbursed to the manufacturing sector, including in chemicals, which is one of the bank'€™s main business banking segments.

'€œWe plan to ask between four to five other banks to join each syndicated loan project,'€ Krishna said on Wednesday.

This year, BNI aims to post an 18 percent increase to Rp 176.92 trillion in its overall business banking loans. The figure is unchanged from its initial target despite the slow economy and a higher Bank Indonesia benchmark interest rate, according to Krishna.

'€œWe remain focused on our eight major segments and they are still doing quite well,'€ he said.

BNI'€™s business banking loans division currently consists of corporate, medium business, small business and international. Besides chemical, the division'€™s main segments also include oil, gas and mining; communications; agriculture; food and beverage; retailers and wholesalers; electricity; and engineering and construction.

In the corporate segment, the growth target is 20 percent. Meanwhile, according to Krishna, the bank disbursed around Rp 2 trillion of corporate loans to the eight major segments in July alone. Specifically in oil and gas, he added, BNI hoped to channel up to Rp 10 trillion in loans by year-end, supported by wider upstream and downstream disbursement fields.

'€œPreviously we were more focused on [state-owned oil and gas company] PT Pertamina, but now we have expanded the coverage to include other firms,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, BNI'€™s latest financial report shows that between January and June 2013, its business banking loans surged 21.9 percent to Rp 164.11 trillion, dominated by corporate with 42.5 percent.

Separately, Dhalia Mansor Ariotedjo, BCA director for corporate business and finance, said that the food and beverage sector would be one of the drivers behind the bank'€™s loan growth this year.

'€œWe continue to see high credit inquiries from the food and beverage sector due to robust domestic demand,'€ she said. Besides food and beverages, the bank saw high inquiries from the textile and telecommunication sectors, she added.

According to Dhalia, the bank disbursed Rp 4.53 trillion in new loans in July. With the new disbursement, BCA'€™s corporate loans figure now stands at around Rp 96 trillion, while in the first half, the loans rose by 18.4 percent to Rp 91.47 trillion from a year before.

On Wednesday, BNI'€™s shares, sold under the code BBNI, ended at Rp 4,275 on the Indonesia Stock Exchange, down 3.3 percent from the previous day, while BCA'€™s shares, offered as BBCA, were up 1 percent to Rp 10,400.