Indonesia's Danamon eyes 1.5 trln rph bonds in H1

JAKARTA, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Indonesia's fifth-largest lender, PT Bank Danamon Tbk BDMN.JK, plans to raise 1.5 trillion rupiah ($162.1 million) in bonds in the first half of this year to fund loan growth, its chief said late on Thursday.

Danamon's president director, Sebastian Paredes, said he was optimistic the bank would be able to raise the funds in the first half of the year despite turbulence in global financial markets.

The bank is controlled by a consortium including Singapore's state investor, Temasek Holdings [TEM.UL], and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz).

It aims to boost its lending by 22 percent this year from 53.33 trillion rupiah at the end of 2007, slightly slower than loan expansion of 24 percent last year.

Danamon's target was largely in line with the central bank and analysts' estimates for banking sector loan growth this year.

With Indonesia's benchmark interest rate, known as the BI rate falling to 8 percent in February from 12.75 percent at the beginning of 2006, many Indonesian companies are trying to lock in their long-term financing by issuing bonds to keep financing costs low.

Bank Danamon reported a 60 percent rise in its 2007 net profit due to strong loan growth and an improvement in its net interest margins. ($1=9,252 rupiah) (Reporting by Nury Sybli, writing by Harry Suhartono, editing by Sugita Katyal and Ben Tan)