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Shares of state Bank Negara Indonesia were allowed Wednesday
to resume trading after being suspended on the Jakarta Stock Exchange
for three days.
The resumption comes before the JSX completes its investigation into
brokers who may be responsible for BNI share price's staggering rise of
77.24 percent in less than three weeks -- from Sept. 11 at Rp 1,340 (14
U.S. cents) to Rp 2,375 on Sept. 28, the day the suspension began.
"The investigation is ongoing but we decided to let the (BNI) stock
enter the market again as we have reached an internal conclusion about
the phenomenon," JSX president director Erry Firmansyah said, without
disclosing more details.
There is growing speculation the rapid increase of the share price was
triggered by market rumors about a government plan to divest part of
its BNI stock.
With a more than 99 percent stake in the bank, the market expects the
government to divest more than 20 percent of its shares in the near
future.
Talks about the divestment and its timing have not been publicly
disclosed.
On Tuesday, Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto said the
government would not permit any new issue of BNI shares, of which 0.89
percent are owned by the public.
The decision to divest BNI shares, he said, would be made if the
government's privatization committee recommended it and President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono gave the go-ahead.
"The decision will show what needs to be done and (will decide) the
amount of funds collected through the rights issue process," Sugiharto
said.
BNI's recent efforts to conclude negotiations on debt settlements with
errant borrowers were also given by some analysts as the reason behind
the price hike.
Recently, BNI announced management had just finished restructuring Rp
3.13 trillion worth of non-performing loans (NPLs) in the bank, from a
total of Rp 5.46 trillion in NPLs from 340 debtors.
The restructuring measures included interest discounts, up to 50
percent cuts on unpaid interest and the eradication of other fees.
The debt haircut, coinciding with the government's plan to divest its
shares in BNI, will likely result in more market optimism about the
bank's share price, analysts said.
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