Pertamina eyes PT Energi Mega Persada

In addition to Medco Energi Internasional, state owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina also plans to acquire a majority stake in PT Energi Mega Persada Tbk, an oil and gas business arm of the Bakrie Group.

Pertamina?s finance director M. Aidhal Bahaudin said in Jakarta on Thursday that Pertamina was currently conducting a due diligence audit on Energy Mega as part of initial steps to take over the company.

He said that Pertamina intended to acquire a majority stake in Energi Mega. But he did not elaborate.

Earlier Pertamina said that it had reached an agreement with business tycoon Arifin Panigoro to buy his entire stake in Encore Energy, the majority shareholder of PT Medco Energi Internasional.

The acquisition of Encore would automatically make Pertamina the majority shareholder of Medco.

Meanwhile Herwin Hidayat, an executive of Energi Mega, said that he did not know about Pertamina?s due diligence audit. ?Usually we are asked to provide a number of documents to be used for due diligence. So far, I don?t know,? he said. (*)