Alam Tri Abadi acquires 49% of Adaro shares

PT Alam Tri Abadi has signed a sale purchase agreement to take over 49 percent of East Kalimantan-based coalmining company PT Adaro Indonesia's shares from Australian company New Hopes and MEC Indocoal.

"We have completed the deal to buy the shares from New Hopes and MEC Indocoal," Alam Tri Abadi's president Gribaldi Thohir said. He said that he was confused why there was a report that Singapore's Temasek had bought the shares.

PT Alam Tri Abadi, joinly owned by four Indonesian businessmen Edwin Soeryajaya, Teddy P. Rachmat, Benny Soebianto and Boy Garibaldi Thohir has acquired the 49 percent shares for US$378 million.

With the purchase, Adaro would be affectively controlled by local companies because the remaining 51 percent shares had been owned by PT Dianlia Setya Mukti, which is also jointly owned by the four businessmen.

Boy Garibaldi said that the new shareholders would soon change the board of directors of PT Adaro which was previously owned by PT Dianlia Setyamukti (51 percent), New Hopes (40.8 percent) and MEC Indocoal (8.2%).

The Office of the Coordinating Minister for Economy said recently that Singapore's Temasek had bought New Hopes's 40.8 percent interest in Adaro. Director General of Geology and Mineral Resources at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources could occur because either New Hopes or Alam Tri Abadi had reported the transaction to the government. (godang)