Govt to divest remaining shares of PTBA through placement
Monday, December 1 2003 - 03:10 AM WIB
The Investor put the divestment figure at 15 percent whereas the Bisnis mentioned the figure as 20 percent. Surprisingly, the source of the news was the same person, Mahmuddin Yasin, deputy to the state minister for state enterprises (restructurization and privatization).
Yasin said the shares will be sold in 2004 under privatization of state enterprises program.
?It will be dependent on the condition of the market whether it will be sold in one block or in phased manner, ? Yasin said in Jakarta recently.
Government is selling its stake in PTBA in order to meet its 2004 privatization target of Rp 5 trillion. This year it is Rp 6.2 trillion.
In December 2002, PTBA planned to sell 35 percent of shares through initial public offering (IPO) at a price of Rp 575 per share. But it was able to sell only 16.26 percent shares and it received Rp 175 billion.
A government source told the Bisnis local investors will be given priority in the 2004 divestment because foreign investors got a big stake in the 2002 IPO
PTBA had been main supplier of 3,400-MW Suralaya power plant in Banten province under long-term contract and sells 83 percent of its product domestically.
PTBA expects its net profit to reach over Rp 200 billion (US$22.185 million) by the end of this year.
"The average selling price is good, while sales volume is also increasing," said company president director Ismet Harmaini recently.
He mentioned that the price of coal on the domestic market now stood at about $23.4 per ton while the international price was $26.8 per ton.
Ismet also targeted the firm's production to reach 10.2 million tons by the end of this year. However, he said production would be flat next year as the firm had reached the maximum limit of its transportation capacity. (*)