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rivate lender Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional (BTPN) will soon take over Bank Sahabat Purba Danarta and turn it into a sharia bank following approval from an extraordinary general shareholders meeting in Jakarta on Monday.

The shareholders meeting came to the agreement that BTPN will take over a 70 percent stake within Bank Sahabat, which focuses on micro lending. The acquisition will be valued at Rp 600 billion (US$49.54 million).

Following the acquisition, PT Triputra Persada Rahmat '€” which is controlled by tycoon Theodore Permadi Rachmat '€” and Purba Danarta Foundation will see both of their shares reduced in Sahabat.

Triputra'€™s shares will fall to 28.59 percent from 95.31 percent and Purba Danarta'€™s will decline to 1.41 percent from 4.69 percent.

Currently, 41 percent of BTPN itself is owned by TPG Nusantara S.a.r.l, 24.3 percent is owned by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and 34.7 percent is controlled by the public.

According to BTPN compliance director and corporate secretary Anika Faisal, BTPN will turn Sahabat into BTPN Syariah to expand its Islamic banking business, which is still operated by its sharia business unit (UUS).

'€œWe will then separate the unit from the conventional BTPN and merge it with BTPN Syariah,'€ she said, adding the process was expected to be completed this year.

BTPN finance director Arief Harris Tandjung said that funds for the acquisition would be used as new capital injection in Sahabat. By then, Sahabat will have around Rp 760 billion in paid-up capital.

According to Sahabat president director Gatot Adhi Prasetyo, at the moment Sahabat has between
Rp 325 billion and Rp 340 billion in total assets and Rp 193.24 billion in loans. Its total number of customers is 150,000, of whom 60,000 are micro customers.

'€œOur micro customers are the ones that fit the profile of BTPN'€™s sharia customers. So we will direct them to join the sharia banking,'€ he said.

BTPN'€™s sharia business unit, on the other hand, has Rp 1.8 trillion in assets and Rp 1.3 trillion in its financing portfolio. It serves 754,000 customers, all of whom are women from the productive poor segment.

Arief said that BTPN expected to see the new bank own more than Rp 2.5 trillion in total assets after the merger. He acknowledged that the UUS had yet to contribute significantly to the overall business of BTPN, citing its 3 percent contribution. '€œHowever, [...] its growth has doubled every year since we launched it in 2011.'€

Anika said BTPN would move Sahabat'€™s headquarters to Jakarta from Semarang, Central Java, to better coordinate the sharia business.

Meanwhile, in its own business, the publicly listed BTPN will adjust its growth target with the guideline set by Bank Indonesia (BI). The central bank sets this year'€™s credit growth at 15 percent to 17 percent and third-party funds growth at 15.4 percent to 16.4 percent.

With the target, BTPN'€™s outstanding loans are expected to reach at least Rp 53 trillion and its deposits are expected to exceed Rp 62 trillion by the end of the year.

Arief said that BTPN was acquiring $200 million of standby loans from the International Finance Corporation (IFC) to finance its lending. It previously gained $150 million in a similar capacity from the IFC.

'€œBut we have not withdrawn all of the committed funds,'€ he said.

Meanwhile, data from the Indonesia Stock Market (IDX) showed that BTPN'€™s shares ended at Rp 4,500 apiece on Monday after the shareholders meeting was held. The price was unchanged from last Friday.

'€” JP/Tassia Sipahutar