Pendawa buys back 17.25% stake at Karimun

PT Pendawa Sempurna, former majority shareholder at PT Karimun Granite has bought back 17.25 percent stake at the mining company from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) and PT Holdiko Perkasa.

IBRA's asset management unit director Dasa Sutanto said that the 17.25 percent stake at Karimun was valued at Rp 21.67 billion, the highest offer given by bidders.

"We gave the same treatment to all prospective investors, and we chose investor offering the highest price," Dasa said in a press statement.

He noted that Pendawa was one of 37 investors, including those from Singapore and Malaysia, invited to bid for Karimun's stake.

Out of the 37 investors, two local investors and two foreign investors expressed their interests in buying the stake. And eventually, at the end of the tendering process, Pendawa won the stake.

Holdiko director Scott Coffey said the sales of Karimun stake would open the way for Holdiko - a holding company established by IBRA to handle assets pledged by the Salim Group to IBRA - to sell other assets, including Mosquito Coil dan Salim Oleochemicals.

Pendawa Sempurna is a private entity that established Karimun in 1971. In early 1990s, the Salim Group bought parts of the company's stake from Pendawa. Due to the crisis, the Salim Group faltered and was in debt to the government because of the fall of its jewel Bank Central Asia, and it was forced to pledged many of its assets, including Karimun Granite, to the government. (*)