Bank Permata appoints Bangkok Bank executives as new commissioners

Shareholders of private-owned Bank Permata have appointed executives of Thailand-based Bangkok Bank Public Company as new commissioners following a latter’s acquisition of the former’s majority stakes. 

Bangkok Bank president Chartsiri Sophonpanich will act as Bank Permata’s new president commissioner, replacing Sebastian Ramon Arcuri. Bangkok Bank senior executive vice president Chong Toh, executive vice president and general manager Chalit Tayjasanant and senior executive vice president Niramarn Laisathit may also join the brand new board of commissioners, replacing Suparno Djasmin, Mark Spencer Greenberg and Ian Charles Anderson. 

The publicly listed bank’s new board of commissioners will effectively undertake its role following the Financial Services Authority (OJK) approves the appointments, according to the minutes of the bank’s extraordinary shareholders meeting on April 23, that was published on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) website. 

In the meeting, the shareholders also approved Bangkok Bank’s acquisition deal where the bank will own 89.12 percent of Bank Permata’s total shares, taking over the ownership from diversified conglomerate Astra International and private-owned Standard Chartered Bank, each which used 44.56 percent of the bank’s total shares. 

Bangkok Bank, the largest commercial bank in Thailand, established its branches in Indonesia decades ago. Its Jakarta branch was set up in 1968 and its own Surabaya and Medan branches have already been operating since 2012 and 2013 respectively. 

“Bangkok Bank plans to help expand spend money on Bank Permata’s clients, employees, business partners and infrastructure, as well as in transforming Bank Permata right into a leading BUKU IV bank in Indonesia,” the statement says.

Currently, Bank Permata is located in the BUKU III category, a cluster of banks with core capital between Rp 5 trillion (US$322.77 million) and Rp 30 trillion. BUKU IV banks are those with core capital of over Rp 30 trillion. 

Bank Permata share prices, traded on the IDX beneath the code BNLI, have rallied upward during the past month. Between March 30 and April 27, the prices have gone up 18.18 percent, closing at Rp 1,235 per share on Monday.

As morning trading started on Tuesday, the bank’s share prices entered the red zone, falling 0.81 percent to Rp 1,225 within the first hour of trading.