Asia Resource, Bakrie extend separation deadline

By Ruli Setiawan

London-listed mining company Asia Resource Minerals plc (ARMS) has agreed to a request from the Indonesian Bakrie family to extend the deadline for a planned separation, the company said in a statement obtained late Wednesday.

The Bakrie Group will now have until January 17 to complete all the conditions for the split with ARMS, formerly known as Bumi Plc. Bakrie and financier Nat Rothschild co-founded Bumi in 2010, but relations between the two have soured during the past couple of years with accusations of wrongdoings from both sides amid the global coal market downturn. Rothschild has also been at odds with the then Bumi management team.

Investors at Bumi (whose name has been changed to ARMS) finally agreed in December for the proposed separation of the company from the Bakries.

?The company and the Bakrie Group have now agreed to extend the date by which certain conditions need to be satisfied in order to complete the Separation Transaction from 15 January to 17 January 2014. Without such an extension, the Separation Transaction would have terminated today,? ARMS said in a statement.

?The reason for this short extension is to provide sufficient time for ARMS to engage with the Bakrie Group in order to understand and consider the reasons for the delay, whether a longer extension is appropriate and, if so, until what date. A further announcement will be made in due course,? it added.

Under the proposed complex separation deal, ARMS outgoing chairman Samin Tan would acquire the Bakries? 23.8 percent shares in the company for US$223 million. In return, the Bakries will buy back ARMS? 29.2 percent shares in IDX-listed coal giant PT Bumi Resources Tbk for $501 million.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak