Seven investors offer to join E. Kalimantan in buying KPC shares

As many as seven investors have offered to team up with East Kalimantan provincial administration to buy a 51 percent stake in coalminer PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), provincial secretary Saiful Teteng said on Tuesday.

Of the seven, two investors were found capable to fulfill the requirements set by East Kalimantan. They were mining company PT Centralink Wisesa and PT Nusantara Energy, Saiful told reporters in Jakarta.

The other five firms were PT Borneo Batubara Batuah, PT Bumi Resources, PT E-Capital, PT Bukit Asam and PT Intan Bumi Persada.

Centralink is partly owned by Thailand?s energy conglomerate Banpu, while Energy Nusantara is owned by Lt Gen (ret) Prabowo Subiyanto who is son-in-law of former authoritarian President Suharto.

Saiful said among the requirements set by the East Kalimantan were investors? readiness to give enough contribution to the welfare of the local community, and that the funds they would use to buy KPC shares were not derived from money laundering practices.

The Indonesian government and KPC shareholders Rio tinto and BP Plc agreed early this year on a US$822 million valuation of the entire operation of KPC.

KPC operates a huge coalmine in Sangatta in Est Kutai Regency, East Kalimantan. It is equally owned by world energy giants Rio Tinto and BP Plc.

KPC is scheduled to divest 51 percent of its shares to Indonesian investors no later than July 31, 2002. The share divestment had been planned for late last month, but it did not materialize because East Kalimantan and KPC shareholders failed to resolve their legal dispute before the deadline.

KPC?s contract with the Indonesian government obliges it to divest 51 percent of its shares to ?Indonesian parties? 10 years after commercial operation. The company started commercial operation in 1992.

The central government recently decided that KPC shares will be sold to state enterprises, Indonesian private investors and East Kalimantan. (godang)