The Marriott option was the personal choice of BRI’s award-winning CEO
Pak Rudjito, who admits he got a substantial discount on the hotel’s
charges but assures me that the aim was to express confidence in
Indonesia, not save a buck.
“It was a win-win situation,” he says.
The 500 investors at the Marriott roadshow were nervous at first but
soon put at ease by Mr Rudjito’s informal manner as he roamed around
the ballroom with his clip-on microphone. Soon they were asking
questions about why the honeypot in BRI’s adverts looks like a shampoo
bottle and why BRI’s share trading commissions are not as discounted as
those at rival Bank Mandiri.
Later the roadshow moved on to European and American cities. BRI is a
bank that specialises in microfinance and, as such, was hurt less badly
by the Asian crisis than many other Indonesian banks. All the same, Mr
Rudjito’s team, as well as underwriters UBS, must have put on a good
show: the deal was 16 times oversubscribed.
BrianCaplen
