Indonesia: Bosowa Group to extend ties with QNB

Indonesia's Bosowa Group, plans to boost cooperation with Qatar National Bank by inviting the Qatari
commercial lender to establish several joint ventures in non-banking financial institutions, reports the Jakarta Globe.

Bosowa, which runs businesses ranging from taxi operations to power-plant construction and cement production, and QNB are investing partners in a locally incorporated bank, Bank QNB Kesawan. Bosowa now owns a 23% stake in the Indonesian lender, and QNB owns a majority stake of 69.59%.

"When executives from QNB come to Indonesia, we will explain the possible cooperation," said Erwin Aksa, the chief executive of Bosowa.

"For the first step," Erwin said, "Bosowa will invite the Qatari lender to join the group in establishing multi-finance companies."

Erwin said there are two possible cooperation options for the firms. The first configuration would be to fund a joint venture with QNB under Adhi Tirta.

Another alternative is merging all of Bosowa¹s multi-finance companies into one legal entity that would be acquired by Bank QNB Kesawan.

"We can always consolidate them," said Erwin, the eldest son of Aksa Mahmud, the founder of Bosowa. Erwin added that Bosowa is keen to intensify cooperation in the finance sector with QNB, as it sees prospects from the financing company to help grow its cement, property and infrastructure businesses.

The total assets of Bosowa stood at IDR10trn at the end of November. The biggest contribution comes from the cement business, which supplies 60% of its total holdings, followed by the automotive business (20%) and the infrastructure sector (10%). The rest of the assets are in the finance, plantation and property industries.