CVRD not allowed to take over PT Inco's minority shareholders

The Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) has said that Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) of Brazil is not allowed to take over the shares of the minority shareholders in PT Inco, the Canada-based Inco Ltd 's subsidiary in Indonesia.

CVRD has recently agreed to take over the entire stake of Inco Ltd, the majority shareholder of PT Inco.

Bapepam's chairman Fuad Rahmany said in Jakarta on Friday that although foreign companies are allowed to own 100 percent shares of a publicly listed company, allowing CVRD to control the entire stake in PT Inco would violate the mining law which prohibits a foreign company to own shares of more than 80 percent.

"We have to respect the mining law because it is more superior to the capital market regulation," he was quoted as saying by Bisnis Indonesia.

Earlier, Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources insists that PT. Inco to stay floated at the Jakarta Stock Exchange despite the fact that its parent company Canadian miner Inco Limited had been acquired by CVRD. (*)