KPC divestment plan will be decided next week
Friday, May 17 2002 - 03:52 AM WIB
"The decision in the percentage of the shares which would be sold to them would be decided next Thursday," T.A. Nurwinakun, the spokesman of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, told Bisnis Indonesia on Thursday.
He said that the meeting was attended by Minister of Home Affairs Sabarno, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro, State Minister for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi, State Secretary Bambang Kesewo and other senior representatives of Minister of Finance, the national police and Attorney General.
He said that companies which are allowed to buy the KPC stake would be required to carry out due diligent audits as soon as possible to speed up the process of the divestment plan which has been delayed for several times.
KPC, which operates a large coal mining area in East Kalimantan, is equally owned by world mining giants Rio Tinto and BP. Under its contracts of works, the company?s shareholders are required to divest 51 percent of their shares to local investors.
The divestment plan has been delayed for several times due to conflict with the local government which has demanded to buy the whole 51 percent share.
Besides the local government, a number of state owned companies including state owned electricity company PLN, state owned coal mining company PT Batubara Bukit Asam, and general mining company PT Aneka Tambang have also expressed their interest to buy KPC?s 51 percent stake
Several other local investors have also filed their bids to buy KPC?s 51 percent stake. They include PT Intam Bumi Inti Perkasa (IBIB), which is owned by David Liem, PT Borneo Batubara (owned by Reynaldo Thamrin), PT Bumi Resources (Bakrie Group). PT E Securities, and PT Nusantara (owned by Prabowo Subyanto). Several state owned companies are also reported to have found a consortium to buy KPC?s 51 percent. (*)