BRI Syariah Plans IPO on the Indonesia Stock Exchange in 2018
BRI Syariah, the Islamic banking unit of leading Indonesian commercial bank Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), is currently assessing the prospects of conducting an initial public offering (IPO) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Indri Tri Handayani, Corporate Secretary at BRI Syariah, will invite several supporting institutions active within capital markets to advise on this IPO plan, including the administrative matters. If BRI Syariah will indeed go-ahead with the IPO, then it will not be realized sooner than early 2018.
Parent company BRI has already given the green light for its Islamic banking unit to become a listed company in Indonesia. Contrary to conventional banks, syariah units provide banking or financing services that comply with syariah (Islamic law). Although Indonesia has a huge Muslim population (in fact the largest in the world), the nation's Islamic banking industry remains underdeveloped. This also means there is plenty of room for growth in this industry.
BRI Syariah is one of the few syariah banks in Indonesia that showed declining net profit so far in 2017. Per April 2017 its net profit had fallen 33.9 percent year-on-year (y/y) to IDR 45.15 billion (approx. USD $3.4 million). Handayani attributed this weak result to the bank's commitment to strengthen its reserves amid the still uncertain global economy. On of BRI Syariah's strategies to boost net profit is by curbing operational costs.
Regarding full-year 2017, BRI Syariah targets to collect IDR 192.3 billion worth of net profit, which would be a 13 percent growth pace from net profit realization in the preceding year. The Islamic bank particularly aims to boost earnings through strong credit disbursement in the infrastructure and construction sectors.
BRI Syariah's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio is relatively high at 4.82 percent particularly due to bad debt in the small and medium-sized enterprises segment.
On Tuesday (12/07) shares of Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) rose 1.37 percent to IDR 14,825 a piece. So far this year, shares of the bank have surged 26.98 percent.
Stock Quote Bank Rakyat Indonesia - BBRI: