Divestment of Adaro shares to be concluded next week

PT Alam Tri Abadi is set to sign a sale and purchase agreement to take over 49 percent of Australian company New Hopes's shares in South Kalimantan-based coal mining company PT Adaro Indonesia this week, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.

PT Alam Tri Abadi said in Jakarta early this week that the company which is owned by four Indonesian businessmen Edwin Soeryajaya, Teddy P. Rachmat, Benny Soebianto and Boy Garibaldi Thohir had agreed to buy the 49 percent shares for US$378 million.

"We hope the sale and purchase agreement could be signed next week," Boy Garibaldi, one of the shareholders of PT Alam Tri Abadi, was quoted as saying by the daily. He said the company would form an alliance with other shareholder PT Dianlia Setya Mukti to control the mining company.

Dianlia, which is also jointly owned by the four businessmen, has already controlled 51 percent of Adaro shares. It means that the four businessmen will be able to control the entire stake of the mining company after PT Alam Tri Abadi concluded the sales agreement.

Boy Garibaldi said that the transaction would not be affected by the ongoing dispute between Dianlia and the Singapore-based Beckett Pte Ltd over the ownership of its shares. The dispute began when PT Asminco Bara Utama, which owns 40 percent share in Adaro, surrendered its shares to Deutsche Bank in 1997 as part of the collaterals of its debts worth US$100 million to the bank.

The bank sold the shares to Dianlia later in 2002 after Asminco failed to pay its debt. The purchase raised Dianlia's ownership in the coal company to 51 percent.

Not happy with the deal, Beckett Pte Ltd, which owns PT Asminco, took the case to the South Jakarta court and then won the legal fight to cancel the deal.(*)