Tata Power delays divestment of RI asset

India?s debt-ridden Tata Power has decided to delay its plan to divest ownership in an Indonesian coal port operator as a planned extraordinary shareholders meeting necessary to obtain approval for the divestment plan has been pushed back from its original schedule of March 27, Kontan daily reported on Monday.

IDX-listed mining and trading company PT Sumber Energi Andalan Tbk, which is more than 94 percent owned by Tata Power, announced in February that it planned to divest its 30 percent shares in coal barge port operator PT Mitratama Perkasa worth US$120 million, the proceeds of which to be either used to finance company operations or distributed to shareholders as dividend.

Long Haul Holdings, a unit of the Bakrie Group, has been appointed as a broker to find buyer for the asset.

But Kontan quoted Sumber Energi President Director Vincent Nangoi as saying that the necessary shareholders meeting has been delayed from its March 27 schedule to an unspecified date.

He said that the delay was because both Sumber Energi and Long Haul were not yet ready to carry out the divestment transaction. ?Both parties are not yet ready, so the extraordinary shareholders meeting hast to be postponed,? Vincent said. (*)