Adaro's divestment continues despite dispute

The divestment of South Kalimantan-based coalminer PT Adaro Indonesia will continue according to the initial schedule despite the company's share ownership dispute, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Saturday.

The company's majority shareholder said in Jakarta on Friday that the government's request to halt the process of the negotiation over the planned sales of Adaro shares until the ownership dispute was cleared would not affect the divestment plan.

"The divestment of New Hope's shares in Adaro will continue. It is a business deal," Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno, the business and development director of PT Dianlia Setyamukti, the majority shareholder of the mining company.

Dianlia, which currently owns 51 percent share in Adaro, has signed an initial agreement to purchase New Hope's 49 percent share in the mining company. As part of the plan, Adaro was proposing for the change of its shareholders composition through the ministry of justice and human rights following the purchase of PT Asminco Bara Utama's shares by Dianlia.

However, the director general of geology and mineral resources Felix Sembiring asked Adaro to temporarily stop the divestment negotiation until the ownership dispute of the company's shares was cleared.

As earlier reported, the dispute began when Asminco, which owns 40 percent share in Adaro, surrendered its shares to Deutsche Bank in 1997 as part of the collaterals of its debts worth US$100 million to the bank.

The bank sold the shares to Dianlia later in 2002 after Asminco failed to pay its debt. The purchase raised Dianlia's ownership in the coal company to 51 percent.

Not happy with the deal, Beckett Pte Ltd, the parent company of Asminco, disputed the sales and took the case to the South Jakarta court and then won the legal fight to cancel the deal. The Singapore-based Beckett is owned by Indonesian businessmen Sukanto Tanoto, the owner of the Raja Garuda Mas Group and Hashim Djoyohadikusumo.

Dianlia, which is jointly owned by Edwin Soeryadjaya, TP Rachmat, Benny Soebianto and Garibaldi Boy Thohir, had appealed to President Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono through their lawyer to interfere with the legal dispute.

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Friday that it was not the government's task to settle the business dispute. "It is a business to business deal. I don't think the government needs to interfere with such a business deal," he was quoted as saying by Koran Tempo on Saturday. (*)