BRI to bankroll IDR1 trillion capex to Perhutani

JAKARTA: The state-controlled lender PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia Tbk (BRI) will bankroll IDR1 trillion capital expenditure to forestry company Perum Perhutani this year.Besides, BRI is also preparing IDR964 billion additional loan for supporting the capital expenditure of Perhutani.Institutional and State-Owned Enterprises Director of BRI Asmawi Syam said the company has supported the capital expenditure of Perhutani since the financing program is a synergy between state-owned companies.Besides, as he said, Perhutani is a healthy state-owned company and it has booked billion of profits in the last 3 years, but it never been obtained loan facility before.We are confident that the loan facility will help Perhutani to be focus and to support its business as well as its investment, he said, yesterday.Besides supporting the financing of capital expenditure, BRI will provide payroll facility to employees of Perhutani.Finance Director of Perhutani ANS Kosasih said that until now the company never been proposed to have a loan facility since the company is able to finance its needs from internal cash.Kosasi said that every year Perhutani has to pay operating cost of more than IDR2 trillion which most of them used to support the payroll of its 25,000 employees.BRI is ready to support funding for Perhutani to finance several projects which is estimated to bring profit as investment value worth IDR1 trillion.Inhutani loanPresident Director of BRI Sofyan Basir said that the company will also distribute IDR300 billion to PT Eksploitasi dan Industri Hutan which will be used to support the development of industrial forest.He added that the company will give loan facility to five state-owned companies which focusing on forestry, such as PT Eksploitasi dan Industri Hutan (Inhutani) I, II, III, IV, V.It will be about IDR60 billion for one Inhutani. Meanwhile, there is five companies, so the total will be IDR300 billion, he said.The loan will be used to support the establishment of industrial forest, which is known as the cooperation project between Inhutani and Perhutani.(wiw/t03)