JAKARTA -- Indonesia's state-owned holding entity for ultramicro businesses, Bank Rakyat Indonesia, on Wednesday said it successfully raised 95.9 trillion rupiah ($6.71 billion) from its recent rights issue -- which the Jakarta bourse called the largest such fundraising in Southeast Asia.

Inarno Djajadi, president director of the Indonesia Stock Exchange, said BRI did not just break the IDX record for the largest rights issue in its history, but also topped those of other bourses in the region. He added the amount raised is also one of the highest among rights issues across Asia as well as globally.

"This is surely a very prideworthy achievement, especially amid very challenging conditions due to the COVID-19 pandemic," Djajadi said during the IDX's opening bell ceremony on Wednesday morning, which featured BRI executives. "High enthusiasm among investors -- including foreign and local -- proves that the outside world still believes in Indonesia's economic prospects today and in the future."

BRI President Sunarso said the rights offering of 28.2 billion shares was oversubscribed 1.53 times, following the trading period on Sept. 13-22. That, he added, means the public retains over 40% ownership of the bank -- one of Indonesia's largest by assets -- with the government continuing as the majority shareholder.

BRI conducted the rights issue to support its recent appointment as the holding entity for two other SOEs: pawnshop chain Pegadaian and ultramicro lender Permodalan Nasional Madani.

The bank had earlier said that the total fundraising includes 54.77 trillion rupiah in a combined "fair market value" of Pegadaian and PNM after the government transfers of its 99.99% stakes in each to BRI was legalized on Sept. 13. The rest came from other existing shareholders and the public's participation in the rights issue.

Thanks to its heavy focus on micro and small loans, BRI before the pandemic had recorded 20 consecutive years of net profit growth.

Sunarso, who like many Indonesians uses a single name, on Wednesday reiterated it was time for the bank to seek new sources of growth from ultramicro businesses, which he had loosely defined during an interview with Nikkei Asia in April as those seeking less that 10 million rupiah per loan with maturities that could be as brief as one day.

Ultramicro businesses have long been underserved by financial institutions, but the segment appears to be lucrative enough to have attracted hundreds of peer-to-peer lending companies to Indonesia over the past few years. Those, however, include unscrupulous players from outside the country that the Financial Services Authority has blamed for many illegal activities, including intimidation and harassment of borrowers by debt collectors.

BRI said it has identified 45 million ultramicro businesses in Indonesia, of which only a third have had access to financial institutions.

Sunarso said the ultramicro holding entity will do more than just help the government support the growth of ultramicro businesses by giving them wider access to financing at cheaper rates through the integration of BRI, Pegadaian and PNM's operations and services across the sprawling archipelago.

"We also would like to convey to our shareholders that this consolidation of ultramicro [businesses] within one ecosystem will provide assurance for a new sustainable source of growth today and in the future," he said. "For banks like BRI in which micro, small and medium-scale businesses are in its DNA, we must become a champion in financial inclusion."

The establishment of the ultramicro holding is part of State Enterprise Minister Erick Thohir's broader policy of consolidation for SOEs, with his office recently unveiling plans to form holding entities for state-owned port operators and food companies.