Due diligence on prospective buyers of KPC shares continuing

The government?s due diligence team is continuing to examine two state coal mining firms which intend to buy a shares in East Kalimantan-based coal miner PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), a senior government official said on Thursday.

They were PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) and PT Bukit Asam (PTBA), said Djoko Dharmono, secretary general of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

KPC shares to be purchased by the firms were the 20-percent shares which had been allocated to the central government.

KPC in late July formally offered to Indonesian investors, through the central government, 51 percent of its shares as obliged by its contract with the government. The central government then offered 31 percent of the shares to East Kalimantan provincial administration, and retained the remaining 21 percent which it had planned to sell to state companies.

Djoko said on Thursday state electricity firm PLN had also submitted its bid to buy KPC shares. But the government turned it down arguing that coal was not PLN?s core business, he said.

The official said further the due diligence team was awaiting the East Kalimantan administration to submit to it the names of investors wishing to buy the 31 percent stake in KPC which had been offered to the province.

KPC, Indonesia?s most profitable coalminer, operates a huge coalmine in East Kutai regency in East Kalimantan. (godang)