Bank Rakyat Indonesia first quarter profit up 52% to $378mn

Strong growth loan has prompted analysts to estimate the bank’s 2011 profit to surge 13% to $1.51bn.

Bank Rakyat Indonesia, Indonesia's second biggest lender by assets, said first quarter net profit rose 52 percent, driven by strong loan growth in Southeast Asia's biggest economy.

The firm's first quarter net profit was 3.26 trillion Indonesian rupiah ($377.86 million), compared with 2.15 trillion rupiah ($251.08 million) in the same period a year earlier, the bank said in a statement.

Analysts had forecast BRI's 2011 net profit would rise 13 percent to 12.91 trillion rupiah ($1.51 billion), according to Thomson Reuters' Starmine SmartEstimate.

BRI, the world's largest micro-lender, said the government asked it to pay a 20 percent dividend payout ratio from 2010 profits, or higher than the 5 percent it originally expected.

It reported first quarter 2011 net interest income rose 22 percent to 8.17 trillion rupiah (954.1 million) from only 6.70 trillion rupiah ($782.44 million) in the year-ago period.

View the full story in Reuters.