ARMS: All Bakrie funds now in escrow account

By Romel S. Gurky

LSE-listed Asia Resources Minerals Plc (ARMS) said that all Bakrie Group funding required to complete the US$501 million separation transaction is now in holding accounts at the escrow bank.

?Additionally, RACL has informed the company that it will issue a notice allowing for the drawdown of funds on Monday 24 March,? the company said in a statement obtained late Friday, referring to the company controlled by its chairman Samin Tan, which would buyout the Bakrie Group?s stake in ARMS as part of the multi-step separation process.

?The company believes that everything is now in place to complete the transaction but this cannot now occur today due to the cut-off time for transferring funds and shares in Singapore. The Company has therefore agreed an extension of the PT Bumi Share Purchase Agreement until Tuesday 25 March and expects the transaction to close on Monday 24 March or, possibly, Tuesday 25 March,? the statement ended.

ARMS, previously known as Bumi Plc, was co-founded by the Indonesian Bakrie family and Nathaniel Rothschild in 2010. But relations between the two then soured, with Bumi hit by board room fights, wrongdoing allegations, and falling coal prices, leading to the proposed split with the Bakries, under which the latter will divest its 23 percent stake in ARMS and buyback ARMS?s 29 percent ownership in IDX-listed coal miner PT Bumi Resources Tbk. The separation has been delayed for several times.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak