L. Joseph
Phone: (202) 473-7700
Fax: (202) 676-0365
E-mail: LJOSEPH@Worldbank.org


WASHINGTON, D.C., April 1 -- The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed agreements to provide a medium-term loan of US$50 million to P.T. BBL Dharmala Finance, an Indonesian multi-finance company, which will use the proceeds to finance leases to over 200 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia. Support for SMEs in Indonesia has become one of IFC's main focuses because they are a vital source of economic growth and leasing is a good mechanism to provide them with longer term funds. In the case of this project, IFC's financing package will address the shortage of medium-term funding for Indonesian multi-finance companies. IFC's financing package consists of a loan of US$15 million for its own account and a syndicated loan of US$35 million for the account of participating financial institutions. As this is the company's first unsecured loan, the success of the syndication establishes P.T. BBL Dharmala Finance as an unsecured borrower in the international syndications market. "This loan marks the first unsecured term loan for P.T. BBL Dharmala Finance and will serve to broaden its sources of funding and lower its borrowing costs in the long term," said Mr. Rashad Kaldany, Manager, Capital Markets in IFC's Asia Department. P.T. BBL Dharmala Finance is one of the best managed and most profitable multi-finance companies in Indonesia. It was founded in 1982 as a joint venture between Bangkok Bank and Dharmala Sakti Sejahtera, the financial services holding company of the Dharmala Group, which has interests in trading, agribusiness, financial services, property, and consumer products. The main business of P.T. BBL Dharmala Finance is leasing, factoring, and consumer finance. IFC is a member of the World Bank Group and is the largest multilateral source of equity and loan financing for private sector projects in developing countries.