Mandiri widens gap with BRI

JAKARTA: PT Bank Mandiri Tbk widens gap with its closest rival, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk as Indonesias largest lender by assets, as government withdrew fund from BRI.Bank Mandiris consolidated assets was IDR466.08 trillion in March 2011, rising 16.71% from IDR399.33 trillion in March 2010.In the meantime, BRI as Indonesias second largest lender by assets booked IDR376.15 trillion assets in the first three months of 2011, surging 22.53% compared to the same period at last year at IDR306.97 trillion.The assets difference of the two banks is IDR89.93 trillion, relatively higher compared to the end of 2010 where the asset difference was only IDR45.49 trillion. The widening gap was contributed by BRIs declining assets in the first three months of 2011.BRIs assets declined by IDR28.13 trillion as per March 2011 compared to 2010 at IDR404.28 trillion. In BRIs financial statement, the bank suffered significant asset drop in its placement in Bank Indonesia by IDR36.65 trillion from January to March.On the other hand, Bank Mandiris assets in the first quarter of 2011 rose by IDR16.31 trillion compared to 2010 at IDR449.77 trillion. Based on Mandiris financial statement, assets jump was contributed by IDR16.63 trillion increase in credit disbursement in the first three months.Asset drop in the 1Q/2011 was attributed by the withdrawal of significant amount of government's fund previously injected to BRI merely to finance development said BRI Corporate Secretary Muhamad Ali.BRIs success in optimizing its function as Treasury Single Account (TSA) has encouraged government to place significant amount of fund to BRI in the end of last year. In the 1Q/2011, such fund was re-withdrawn to be used as development fund, resulting into a decline over BRIs total asset, he said.According to Ali, such asset drop happened to be an annual cycle that usually occurred in the first quarter. He expects BRIs asset to grow in second quarter compared to the end of 2010.Such asset drop is a usual business cycle, thus BRI has prepared several strategies to anticipate this, he said.In the meantime, Mandiris asset jump was backed by rights issue of 2.33 billion shares last February. In such corporate action, Mandiri generated IDR11.68 trillion additional capital. (T02/NOM)