PT BNI Securities (BNIS) will soon sign a cooperation agreement with Japanese SBI Securities Co.Ltd. (SBIS), BNI president director Gatot M Suwondo said here on Wednesday.

SBIS is a subsidiary of SBI Holding Co.Ltd. which is Japan`s well-known on-line share trading company providing advanced service facilities and offering various kinds of financial services. PT BNIS meanwhile is a subsidiary of state-owned bank PT BNI.

"BNIS and SBIS have agreed to cooperate with SBIS becoming one of BNIS shareholders injecting additional capital to strengthen BNIS stronger," he said.

Suwondo said SBIS would join to be one of the BNI Securities shareholders with fresh additional capital.

"A lot of positive things could be gained from the cooperation including the strengthening of BNI Securities capital and sharing of BSIS experience" he said.

He said the decision of SBIS to enter into the Indonesian market through cooperation with BNIS was proof that BNI is a leading bank in Indonesia.

He said BNI Securities had also decided to immediately issue 33.3 million new shares which would be released to SBI Securities.

Suwondo said under the agreement SBIS would own 25 percent shares in BNIS while PT Bank Negara Indonesia Tbl. (BNI) would hold 75 percent of the shares.

BNI Securities president director Jimmy Nyo said the right issue process was expected to be implemented in the second quarter of 2011 and right now he was still waiting for a permit from the capital market authorities.

"Right issue is actually not about funds. In principle we actually are not in dire need of additional funds. We did it exclusively upon corporate strategy. We wish to learn a lot from SBIS as a well-known online trading company in Japan. That is the main reason," he said.

He said capital market industry in Japan is one of the world`s most competitive capital markets. He said he believed SBIS experience would give a lot of benefit to BNI Securities performance growth in the future. (Uu.H-YH/HAJM/F001)