JAKARTA – PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) Tbk or BRI will continue to distribute dividends with an optimal dividend payout ratio, as the company's capital is still deemed solid. This was stated by BRI President Director, Sunarso, at the Public Expose Live 2024 event in Jakarta (29/08).

Sunarso said that BRI has additional capital of IDR 41 trillion from the right issue for the formation of Holding Ultra Mikro (UMi) alongside PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM) and PT Pegadaian. In addition, BRI's capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was recorded at 25.13% at the end of Q2 2024.

With strong capital, BRI does not need to retain profits. "As CEO, I am sure that for the next 5 years, no matter how much BRI's profit is, it is worthy of being distributed in the form of dividends. Why? Because it is not necessary to retain profits to strengthen capital, because the capital is already very strong," explained Sunarso.

BRI's dividend distribution will later depend on the approval of the authorities, including the Ministry of SOEs, the Ministry of Finance, and the Financial Services Authority (OJK). "BRI's dividends will definitely be at a high level, because that is not a problem for BRI's capital," said Sunarso.

"Talking about high dividend payout ratio, it is a must. But how can we afford it? Will it be distrbuted all at once or in instalments through interim? That is the subject of approval from the authorities," he said.

At the event, Sunarso also implied BRI's optimism for positive performance in the future. BRI's optimism to grow healthily and sustainably in interlinked with the success of the BRI Group in recording positive performance until the second quarter of 2024. With selective and prudent growth, BRI has managed to record a consolidated profit of IDR 29.90 trillion until the end of the second quarter of 2024.

This achievement resulted from BRI's credit distribution, which reached IDR 1,336.78 trillion or grew 11.20% year on year (yoy). The MSME segment still dominates BRI's credit distribution, with a portion reaching 81.96% of BRI's total credit distribution, or around IDR 1,095.64 trillion. The double-digit credit distribution has resulted in BRI's assets increasing by 9.54% yoy to IDR 1,977.37 trillion. Selective and prudent credit growth has enabled the Company to maintain the quality of the credit distributed.

"The Loan at Risk (LAR) ratio has improved or decreased, from 14.94% at the end of Q2 2023 to 12.00% at the end of Q2 2024. Meanwhile, the non-performing loan (NPL) ratio is in the range of 3.05% with the NPL coverage ratio at an adequate level of 211.60%," said Sunarso.

In terms of funding, BRI's Third Party Funds (DPK) have grown by 11.61% yoy to IDR1,389.66 trillion. Where low-cost funds or CASA (Savings and Giro) still dominate BRI's DPK structure, where the CASA portion reaches 63.17% of BRI's total DPK.

"With good financial fundamentals, as well as BRI's ability to serve the wider community, coupled with the existence of new sources of growth from ultra-micro holding, BRI is optimistic that it can continue to record positive and sustainable performance," concluded Sunarso. (***)