SOEs ready to buy Newmont stake: Minister

State Minister of State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Sofyan Djalil said Wednesday that state-owned enterprises are ready to acquire the 17% stake in mining firm PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT).

?We?re encouraging them to buy it. We still discussing it, who will buy the stake? he said. ?The point is, it is a great opportunity. If (the state-owned enterprises) could buy it, why not? Commodities prices are lower than last year, helping us to ease financial pressure.?

The potential buyers include PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam), PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam Tbk (PTBA) and PT Timah Tbk.

The statement came following the decision by the international arbitration in favor of the Government of Republic of Indonesia in dispute over the obligatory divestment of the NNT stake. NNT is a unit of US mining giant Newmont Corporation.

The Arbitral Tribunal orders among others PT NNT to divest within 180 days the 17% shares that it was obliged to divest from 2006 through 2008. Ten percent of the stake should be sold to the local administrations and the other 7 percent to the central government.

Meanwhile, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Wednesday that the arbitration decision was final in nature. NNT has thus no right to appeal the decision. (*)