PGN asked to open a tender in selecting underwriters

State Minister for State Owned Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi has officially asked state owned gas distribution company PT PGN to open a tender in selecting underwriters for its bond offering, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Tuesday.

?Normally, there should be a beauty contest in selecting an underwriter. But we don?t know whether or not PGN has done it,? he was quoted as saying.

PGN has not yet publicly announced the appointment of underwriters for its US$500 million bonds which would be issued in two stages this year. Sources, however, said that joint venture securities company Credit Suisse First Boston (CSFB) and Asia Kapitalindo Securities Tbk have been involved in the preparation of the bond issuance.

Holman Sitohang, the managing director of CSFB, said that his company had formally filed a proposal to underwrite the bond offering. But he added that CSFB had not yet sent its formal request to carry out the underwriting jobs.

Laksamana said that his office had received several candidates to handle the underwriting of PGN?s US$500 million bond offering. They include CSFB, Merrill Lynch, ABN Amro-Rothshild and Citigroup. (*)