PLN not yet dediced to buy KPC shares: Eddie

State electricity company PLN said on Friday it was not yet fully certain whether to buy a 51 percent stake in East Kalimantan-based coal mining giant PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) which are set to be divested end-June.

?We just expressed our intention. But we have not yet decided whether to buy the shares,? PLN president director Eddie Widiono told reporters.

Eddie admits however that having a stake in KPC, which is the world?s largest coal miner equally owned by Rio Tinto and BP Plc, could help boost PLN?s revenues especially when coal prices increase.

Eddie declined to comment whether PLN would join in a consortium of state enterprises to buy KPC shares. Recently, officials at the State Ministry of State Enterprises and the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said the government had planned such a consortium.

The East Kalimantan provincial administration is also determined to purchase the 51 percent stake in KPC.

Meanwhile, several private investors have also offered to buy the shares.

The share divestment is mandatory as stipulated in KPC?s 1982 operating contract.

KPC operates coal mines in Sangatta District in East Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan.

The company has an annual coal output of 17 million tons, a significant portion of which is shipped to Japan. (Godang)