Pukuafu angry over Newmont's IPO plan, taking legal action
Monday, August 23 2010 - 02:16 AM WIB
NNT?s 82.2 percent majority shareholders held a general extraordinary meeting last week to discuss a decision to offer new shares amounting to 10 percent of the existing shares to the public through an IPO planned to be arranged in the first quarter of 2011.
Pukuafu?s lawyer Indah Wisye H. Koesoemaningrat said both the meeting and its decision ran counter to NNT?s mining contract, therefore, the company decided to file the legal claims.
?In the legal claims, we ask NNT president director Martiono Hadianto to cancel the meeting as it runs counter with the mining contract. If this legal claim is ignored, we will continue filing both civil and criminal lawsuits,? Wisye said in a press statement published Saturday.
NNT is a subsidiary of US mining giant Newmont Mining Corporation and the operator of the Batu Hijau copper and gold mine on Sumbawa Island, West Nusa Tenggara.
Pukuafu and NNT?s foreign shareholders, Newmont and Japan?s Sumitomo, are in dispute over the company?s ownership.
According to Newmont and Sumitomo, NNT?s current major shareholders are Newmont Indonesia Limited (31.5 percent); Sumitomo?s subsidiary Nusa Tenggara Mining Corporation (24.5 percent), domestic mining firm PT Pukuafu Indah (17.8 percent), PT Multi Daerah Bersaing (24 percent) and PT Indonesia Masbaga Investama (2.2 percent).
PT Multi Daerah Bersaing (MDB) is a joint venture between PT Multicapital, a business unit of coal giant PT Bumi Resources; and PT Daerah Maju Bersaing, a company established by several regional administrations in West Nusa Tenggara province.
MDB secured the 24 percent stake through a divestment process mandated by a 1986 mining contract.
The contract requires NNT?s foreign shareholders, Newmont and Sumitomo, to divest as much as 31 percent of their shares to local parties. The two companies are now in negotiation with the government for the divestment of the final 7 percent of shares scheduled for this year.
However, Pukuafu has its own version on the ownership of PT NNT. According to the company, NNT?s foreign shareholders agreed in earlier shareholders meeting held in 2007 and 2008 that the 31 percent of shares would be divested to Pukuafu. The company said this had also been backed by a South Jakarta district court decision ordering Newmont and Sumitomo to cancel the divestment process to MDB.
Wisye said Newmont and Sumitomo should have sold 31 percent of their shares to Pukuafu on Aug. 4, 2010.
Therefore, Pukuafu?s version of NNT?s ownership composition is Pukuafu (51 percent); Newmont Indonesia Limited (27.5 percent); and Sumitomo?s Nusa Tenggara Mining Corporation (21.5 percent).
The government seems to have taken sides with Newmont and Sumitomo as the energy and mineral resources ministry continue negotiations with NNT management over the price of the final 7 percent.
The government and NNT expect to reach an agreement this month. (*)