Govt, KPC delay share price meeting until June 28

The ministry of energy and mineral resources and the shareholders of coal mining company PT Kaltim Prima Coal have delayed their meeting on the price of the company?s shares until June 28.

Director of coal venture development Mahyudin Lubis told Petromindo.Com on Monday that the meeting, which was initially arranged for June 21, had been delayed until Thursday this week at the request of KPC shareholder for ?unknown reasons?.

The meeting aims to determine the price for the 51 percent stake which, under the contract, KPC has to divest this year.

Under their contracts, all coal companies, including KPC, have to gradually sell up to 51 percent of their shares to the Indonesian government, state companies, Indonesian-controlled private companies or Indonesian citizens after ten years of production.

KPC?s shareholders initially insisted that the deadline for it to sell 51 percent stake had not yet come, causing long dispute with the East Kalimantan provincial administration, which is interested to buying the entire 51 percent stake.

KPC?s shareholders recently agreed to sell the 51 percent stake.

Documents made available to Petromindo revealed that KPC?s shareholders set the total value of the company at US$880 million, but there was no decision yet on the price for the 51 percent stake.

Meanwhile, according to East Kalimantan papers, the provincial administration has set the price for the 51 percent stake at $350 million.

A senior official in the province recently claimed that the ministry had estimated the price for the 51 percent stake at $400 million, but there is not yet any confirmation by the ministry about this.

KPC, which operates a huge coal mine in Sangatta, East Kalimantan, is equally owned by Anglo-Australian mining firm Rio Tinto and Anglo-American energy giant BP. (Alex)