PRESS RELEASE: Ernst & Young complete assessment of Antam's corporate governance

State mining firm PT Antam Tbk on Thursday announced the successful completion of the assessment and evaluation phase of its good corporate governance implementation project. The project began on July 26th, 2001 and was completed on time and on budget on October 4th, 2001. In a ceremony held today during the company's Public Expose in the Jakarta Stock Exchange building, Antam officially closed the evaluation and published the results.

The evaluation was directed by a ten-person team from international consultants Ernst & Young, who worked closely with a team of counterparts from Antam. The assessment approach includes questionnaires, one on one interviews and document observation. The results are benchmarked to best practice to identify areas for improvement. The assessment considers 12 key elements to focus on the pillars of good corporate governance: transparency and disclosure, independence, accountability and responsibility. These include such areas as the roles, skills, independence and monitoring of the Boards, management reports, community consultation, and risk management.

The 12 governance elements were evaluated as to whether the current levels were good, poor, or needed improvement. The majority of Antam's elements were given a 'needs improvement' rating although none were seen to be 'poor'. Antam's external reporting was rated 'good' and in terms of continuous disclosure, on par with other international mining firms.

Antam's President Director D. Aditya Sumanagara said: "Antam is fully committed to doing what it takes to become not only a company run according to the highest standards of corporate governance but also recognized as such by the capital market and all of our stakeholders. The clear picture of our governance as provided by Ernst & Young will allow us to take the necessary steps to further improve our corporate governance and ultimately achieve our vision for 2010 of being a world class company. We see long-term benefits for the company and our shareholders in ensuring that Antam is not only profitable but also transparent and responsible."

Meanwhile, Dr Jos Luhukay, Engagement Partner for the project with Ernst & Young said: "The results of Antam's evaluation should not be viewed negatively, but rather as an indicator of how far Antam has come on its path to good corporate governance since it first became a public company in 1997. Good corporate governance is really about common sense, but to ensure an organization is consistently well governed is an ongoing long-term challenge for all companies. Antam demonstrated an enthusiasm to reveal their true picture of governance and this can only be seen as a harbinger for a successful implementation of further improvement measures."

Antam aims for best practice in the area of corporate governance and has taken significant steps to promote transparency, fairness, accountability and responsibility. These include establishing a corporate secretary, creating independently run strategic business units of its separate divisions and implementing the balance score card system to fairly monitor employee performance. Currently Antam is taking steps to protect minority shareholders? interests, through the establishment of an independent commissioner. The selection process includes a nomination panel involving minority shareholders and is headed by an independent party.

Fulfilling its commitment to good corporate governance, Antam will further assess the results of the evaluation and establish priorities. The implementation of the improvement agenda, which will be made available, will begin in the first quarter of next year.

Antam is a diversified, vertically integrated mining company with nickel and gold as its main products and is one of Indonesia?s leading mining operations. With over 30 years of mining experience, Antam is one of the world?s lowest cost producers of its core products, nickel and gold. (*)