Public investors? stake in Medco drops to 5.24%

Public investors? stake in JSX listed oil mining firm PT Medco Energi International Tbk has dropped to 5.24 percent or 174.47 million shares after the company completed its program of buying back 228.19 million shares, Bisnis Indonesia daily reported Saturday.

?With the buyback, by January 6, 2003 shares owned by public investors dropped to 174,478,385 shares which account for 5.25 percent of all shares traded,? the paper quoted as saying Medco?s finance director Sugiharto in his letter to Capital Market Supervising Agency (Bepepam).

Sugiharto said Medco had bought the 174,478,385 shares at Rp1,257.16 (US$=Rp8,800) each.

By January 6, after the completion of the buyback program, Mauritius-based New Links Energy Resources held a 85.51 percent stake in Medco; Medco Duta and Multifabrindo 2.41 percent; public investors 5.24 percent; and treasury stock (Medco Energi International Tbk) 6.84 percent.

Medco is Indonesia?s largest publicly traded oil and natural gas company. (*)