PGN offers 1.68 billion shares to public

State-owned gas utility company PT Perusahaan Gas Negara (PGN) will sell its 1.68 billion B series shares -- including greenshoe and redshoe option allotment in case the offer is oversubscribed – to the public through the initial public offering (IPO), Bisnis Indonesia and Investor Indonesia newspapers reported on Thursday.

According to its IPO prospectus published in both dailies, the total number of shares to be offered to the public will be equivalent to the 39 percent of its total existing 4.32 billion shares.

In case the greenshoe and redshoe options are not executed, the total number of PGN’s shares to be offered to the public will be only 1.296 billion shares or 30 percent of the company’s existing shares.

The offer will begin on December 8 and ends on December 10. PGN will list its shares on December 15, 2003 on the Jakarta Stock exchange and Surabaya Stock Exchange.

The underwriters of the issue are PT Danareksa Sekuritas, PT ABN AMRO Asia Securities and PT Credit Suisse First Boston Indonesia will work as guarantor of the IPO.

The share price will be announced today (Thursday) in a public expose in Jakarta, Mahmuddin Yasin, deputy to the state minister for state enterprises, said.

Mahmuddin hopes that the government will get around Rp 1.5 trillion to Rp 2 trillion from the sale of 30 percent of B shares through the IPO. A portion of the IPO proceeds will be used to cover the state budget deficit and the remaining amount will be used to finance the PGN’s expansion.

PGN’s initial public offering (IPO) was postponed to December 12, 2003 from November 20 due to auditing problems. The share price will be fixed on Wednesday.

PGN needs huge amount of investment to complete several gas pipeline projects like Grissik-Pagar Dewa in South Sumatra, Duri (Riau)-Belawan (North Sumatra) pipelines and another pipeline from Riau to Singapore. (*)