PT Timah says it plans to buy four Salim coal companies
Friday, January 12 2001 - 04:00 AM WIB
Indonesia's PT Tambang Timah said yesterday it plans to buy a stake in four Salim Group coal mining companies from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.
"For such a plan, we are now doing a due diligence in the four companies," Timah President Director/Chief Executive Erry Riyana Hardjapamekas told Dow Jones Newswires.
The four are PT Indominco Mandiri, PT Kitadin, PT Barasentosa Lestari, and PT Trubainda Coal Mining.
According to IBRA, of the four companies only Kitadin and Indominco have started production, while the two other are still at the exploration stage.
Erry said the company's plan to acquire a stake in Salim's coal mining companies is still in the preliminary stages, adding the company will seek approval from its shareholders at an extraordinary general meeting Feb. 14.
The Salim Group and its president, Anthony Salim, pledged equity stakes in over 100 companies to IBRA in late 1998 as repayment for Rp53 trillion it owed the government.
The Indonesian central bank had pumped about Rp30 trillion into the group's cash-strapped PT Bank Central Asia before it was nationalized later that year amid massive runs on its deposits.
The government pooled the Salim Group's pledged assets into a holding company, called PT Holdiko Perkasa, which is now managed by IBRA.
The four coal mining companies are now under Holdiko Perkasa.
Erry wouldn't say how much his company might pay for the coal companies.
"We are going to follow an open tender held by IBRA," he said, but didn't offer further details.
He said the company will finance the acquisition with cash on hand and if necessary may seek a foreign partner. "But, I can't reveal any details since the tender offer for the companies haven't yet done," he added. (*)