The dividends are equal to 25 percent of the bank’s 2019 profit of Rp 15.38 trillion, an unchanged ratio from the previous year. BNI’s shareholders will receive a dividend of Rp 206.45 per share, an increase of 2.57 percent from last year’s dividend of Rp 201.28 per share.

The state, which holds 60 percent of the bank’s shares, a total of 11 billion shares, will receive a dividend of Rp 2.31 trillion.

“BNI proposed 25 percent, because we foresee that we still need room to grow. With dividends at 25 percent, the retained capital will be bigger,” newly appointed BNI vice president director Anggoro Eko Cahyo told a press briefing after an annual general shareholders meeting in Jakarta on Thursday.

The bank’s retained capital at 75 percent of last year’s profit amounts to Rp 11.54 trillion.

Anggoro added that the new PSAK 71 accounting standard would affect the company’s capital adequacy ratio (CAR) by approximately 2 percentage points, so its CAR of 19.7 percent would likely decrease to 17.7 percent. The new standard requires a larger loan loss provision so that banks could cover both good and bad loans as opposed to only bad loans in the past.

The publicly listed bank's net profit grew 2.5 percent to Rp 15.38 trillion in 2019 from Rp 15.01 trillion in the previous year, marking a significant slowdown from the 20.1 percent expansion recorded the year prior. The nonperforming loan (NPL) ratio rose to 2.3 percent last year, a 40-basis point increase from an NPL ratio of 1.9 percent in 2018.

The bank projected that this year’s NPL would be steady at between 2 and 2.2 percent, already factoring in internal and external dynamics, including the negative impact of the coronavirus, Anggoro said.

“We will prepare a strategy for the worst-case scenario. We are still going to expand, but in the sectors [affected by the coronavirus outbreak], we will be very prudent,” Anggoro said, referring to the sectors of manufacturing, health and pharmaceuticals, tourism, aviation and hotels as those affected by the outbreak.

In the shareholders meeting, the publicly listed bank also appointed former Bank Indonesia governor Agus as its new president commissioner, replacing Ari Kuncoro, who was appointed deputy commissioner at state lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).

“With Pak Agus Martowardojo’s experience in the banking world, we hope to be able to cooperate with the directors and make BNI an even bigger state-owned bank,” State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Minister Erick Thohir said in a written statement on Thursday.

The shareholders also appointed Pradjoto as the bank's vice president commissioner, replacing Hambra.

On its board of directors, shareholders promoted its previous vice president director, Herry Sidharta, as the new president director, replacing Achmad Baiquni. Herry’s previous position as vice president director was filled by Anggoro Eko Cahyo.

BNI is the third bank to announce its dividend payouts this week, following BRI and Bank Mandiri.

BRI announced on Tuesday its plans to distribute Rp 20.6 trillion in dividends, equal to 60 percent of the bank’s profit, to its shareholders. The ratio exceeds the 50 percent dividend payout of 2018.

Bank Mandiri announced on Wednesday it was going to distribute Rp 16.49 trillion to its shareholders under a similar dividend payout ratio as BRI, notably higher than the 45 percent payout of 2018.

With BNI, Bank Mandiri and BRI having conducted their annual shareholders meetings this week, the SOE minister’s plan to shake up executives at the three state-owned banks, which he announced last week, has been concluded. The shakeup is part of Erick’s efforts to improve the performance of Indonesia’s SOEs.

Shares of BNI, traded at Indonesia Stock Exchange under the code BBNI, closed at Rp 7,775 on Friday, or dropped 1.89 percent compared to the previous trading day. The bank’s stocks have fallen 10.77 percent in the past year, in line with the broader benchmark Jakarta Composite Index’s 7.82 percent fall. (ydp)

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