 |
Best bank: Bank Mandiri Best equity house and Best M&A house: Credit Suisse Best debt house: UBS
|
In Indonesia, bigger seems to be better. Indonesia’s largest lender, Bank Mandiri, gets the nod for a year of consolidation during which it cleaned up a ropey loan book and managed to lift profits by 80%.
Indonesian corporates are again up and about, and state-owned Mandiri seems well placed to serve them. Full-year net profit in 2007 was $475 million, a vast improvement on the $270 million a year earlier, and helped along by loan growth that was 20% higher. Although that was just under the overall industry growth in lending, Mandiri boss Agus Martowardojo has been cleaning up the bank’s bad debt hangover from 2004/05, straightening the balance sheet and reducing exposure to non-performers.