ARMS completes separation from Bakrie Group

By Romel S. Gurky

LSE-listed Asia Resource Minerals plc (ARMS) announced Tuesday completion of the separation transaction with Indonesia?s Bakrie Group, which was approved by shareholders at the EGM on 17 December 2013.

The separation transaction has involved the disposal of the company's 29.2 percent interest in IDX-listed coal miner PT Bumi Resources Tbk to the Bakrie Group for US$501 million in cash and the acquisition by RACL, a company owned by the ARMS' current Chairman, Samin Tan, of the Bakrie Group's entire 23.8 percent indirect interest in the company.

As a result, companies controlled by Samin Tan now own 47.6 percent of the total shares of the company.

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. The separation transaction has been delayed for several times.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak