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tate-owned Bank Mandiri is looking to increase its bilateral borrowings as part of its efforts to source funds outside customer deposits.

The publicly listed lender plans to seek rupiah funds worth around Rp 5 trillion (US$350 million) to Rp 7 trillion, which will be borrowed from foreign and joint-venture banks, according to Mandiri treasury and markets director Pahala Mansury.

'€œWe are looking for more rupiah funding because our liquidity in foreign exchange is very adequate. However, we are still reviewing the lenders and hope that it can be completed this quarter,'€ Pahala said on the sidelines of a seminar on Monday.

Pahala said Mandiri planned to channel the bilateral loans to sectors that had growing potential demand in the future, such as infrastructure and consumer goods, including mortgage and automotive.

The bank also planned to seek bilateral loans with a time period of around three to five years to support the financing for such sectors, which were long-term in nature, Pahala added.

Aside of bilateral borrowings, Pahala said Mandiri was also continuing a review of a postponed plan to issue new securities from its mortgage assets, which had been delayed for one year.

Pahala said the securitization (KIK-EBA) had been postponed due to rising volatility in the capital market in the past year and expected to issue its securities in the fourth quarter this year when conditions returned to normal.

'€œWe already conducted its due diligence and we expect to raise between Rp 750 billion and Rp 1 trillion,'€ Pahala said.

Pahala said the amount sought from bilateral borrowings and mortgage-assets securitization were part of the around $2 billion to $3 billion targeted in Mandiri'€™s sourcing of funds outside the regular third-party funding (DPK).

The amount includes funds raised from negotiable certificates of deposit and a plan to issue between $800 million and $1 billion in bonds for contingencies, as well as a planned $1 billion loan from the China Development Bank (CDB).

As previously reported, the CDB loan is part of a larger $20 billion financing commitment from the Chinese lender to Indonesia that will be disbursed to numerous infrastructure projects, either via Indonesia'€™s state banks or directly to state-owned enterprises.

In the initial stage, Mandiri '€” along with state lenders Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) '€” stand to obtain $1 billion each.

Mandiri president director Budi Gunadi Sadikin said Mandiri had predicted its loans would grow between 11 percent and 13 percent this year despite weak growth, while citing '€œthe recent stimulus issued by Financial Services Authority [OJK] on debt restructuring giving a fresh wind to banks'€.

The OJK'€™s stimulus, which includes leniency on debt restructuring, is a temporary measure that allows lenders to recondition their loan agreements with some institutional customers that have somewhat disrupted cash flows.

'€œWe have almost Rp 20 trillion in outstanding loan portfolios that have been under the restructuring program for a long time,'€ Budi said.