Panigoro family plans to increase ownership in Medco

The Panigoro family has expressed their attention to buy the 19.9 percent share ownership of Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) in New Links Energy Resources, which controls 85 percent of PT Medco Energi International Tbk. The planned acquisition will indirectly raise Panigoro?s shares in Medco, Bisinis Indonesia reported on Monday.

Chairman of Medco Group, Hilmi Panigoro, said that his family and PTTEP Offshore Investment Company Limited had the pre-emptive rights to buy CSB?s shares in New Links if the company planned to sell them.

"If CSFB wants to sell its shares, we and PTTEP will buy them with a ratio of 50 percent each," Hilmi was quoted as saying. He, however, said CSFB had yet to give a formal offer even though the investment company had gained the rights to sell its shares.

Medco is 85 percent owned by New Links which is 41 percent owned by the Panigoro family, 40 percent by PTTEP and another 19.9 percent by CSFB.

Head of Medco?s Corporate Research and Information Section, Gamala V. Katoppo, earlier acknowledged that CSFB had openly offered to sell its shares in New Links to Encore Ltd, a company owned by the Panigoro?s and PTTEP.

He said that CSFB could only sell its shares to other parties, if both Encore and PTTEP refused the offer. (*)