Bumi slashes FBS stake buy to 50%

IDX-listed coal mining giant PT Bumi Resources said that it had reached agreement with the seller to lower the price of stake it is buying in East Kalimantan coal miner PT Fajar Bumi Sakti (FBS).

Bumi said in a statement to the Indonesia Stock Exchange Thursday that in order to comply with the ruling, it would reduce the size of the purchased stake, rather than paying a lower amount for the original stake.

"We have held intensive discussion with the owner of PT Fajar Bumi and agreed to accept the revision by MAPPI, based on a 50 percent ownership rather than the previous 76.7 percent ownership," the firm said.

On Dec. 26, 2008, the firm announced that its subsidiary PT. Bumi Resources Investment had signed a deal with Ancara Properties Limited to acquire 76.9 percent shares in Leap Forward Finance Limited, which indirectly controlled 98.5 percent shares in FBS.

Bumi originally agreed to acquire the stake for Rp 2.47 trillion (1US$ = Rp 10,300) which would be paid in stages within two years, However, following the result of investigation by the Indonesian Society of Appraisers or MAPPI that concludes that Bumi had overpriced the stake, capital market regulator Bapepam ordered Bumi to reduce the price of the deal by Rp 370 billion

Bumi has planned to produce 2.3 million tons of coal in 2009 from FBS and increase the output to 7 million in 2012. (denny)