Bakrie hopes to conclude Bumi sales this week

IDX-listed conglomerate PT Bakrie and Brothers Tbk is concluding a negotiation on the sales of the business group?s 35 percent share in the country?s largest coal producer PT Bumi Resources to a consortium comprising of two state-owned firms and an American strategic investors, Kontan reported on Friday.

Bumi?s spokesman Dileep Srivastava said in Jakarta on Thursday that the negotiation was expected to be concluded this week, allowing Bakrie and Brothers to immediately pay its debts.

But Dileep declined to elaborate about the negotiation, but informed source said that the consortium comprising Texas Pacific Group?s Indonesian strategic partner Northstar Pacific, two state firms PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA)and PT Timah and a national private company was among a number of strategic investors willing to buy Bumi Resources shares.

According to the sources, the consortium offered to buy the 35 percent stake in Bumi Resources for about US$1.6 billion, or Rp 2,300 per share, about 5.6 percent higher than the company?s closing price before the trading of the share was suspend on October 6.

Bakrie which owns the business group has been forced to sell their share ownership in Bumi Resources and other subsidiaries to pay its debts of about US$1.2 billion to several funders including Oddickson Finance, JP Morgan and ICICI bank following the free fall of the shares of the company?s subsidiaries. (*)