SINGAPOREAN COMPANY TO ACQUIRE KERTAS BASUKI. Fund manager firm based in Singapore headed by former chief of the defunct Indonesian Restructuring Agency (IBRA) Glen Mohammad Surya Yusuf, plans to acquire the majority stake in paper producer PT Kertas Basuki Rachmat Indonesia Tbk. Tiur Simamora, the corporate secretary of Kertas Basuki, said the parent company of PT Kertas Basuki Rachmat Indonesia Tbk and PT Kertas Blaak Magelang , also a paper producrr, and PT HTI Basuki Rachmat, an industrial timber estate (HTI) company, will hold an annual shareholders' meeting with an agenda to replace its boards of directors and commissioners. The change in the management will mark the involvement of the strategic investor from Singapore. The shareholders of Kertas Basuki by April 2010 included Adam Ariaji as a 28.13% shareholder, PT Malindo Nusantara Cemerlang a 24.87% owner, former owner of PT Energi Mega Persada Tbk Rennier A.R. Latief 13.97%, and investing public 33.03%. Meanwhile, M Said Didu , the secretary of the office of the minister for state enterprises, said the government would divest a 0.38% stake in PT Kertas Basuki.
BAKRIE TO WRAP UP ACQUISITION OF DOMAS AGROINTI. PT Bakrie Sumatra Plantations Tbk said it will soon wrap up the process of acquisition of PT Domas Agrointi Prima at a price of Rp 1.1 trillion. The price does not include debts of Domas that have to be settled by the subsidiary of the Bakrie Group. Domas is a group of companies all operating in oleochemcal industry. After the acqusition Bakrie Plantations will have to restructure all of the debts that include Bank Mandiri US$ 78 million, Credit Suisse US$ 151 million and cosmetic producer P&G US$ 40 million. The subsidiary of the Bakrie Group said the oleo-chemical factories of Domas are expected to resume operation in September. A technical team has been sent to factory locations in Kuala Tanjung and Tanjung Morawa in North Sumatra to ensure that the facilities could operate as scheduled, a company's executive said. The facilities including fatty alcohol , fatty acid , cooking oil and palm kernel processing factories, have long been lying idle under financially troubled Domas . The entire oleochemical products already have buyers such as Procter & Gamble which will buy fatty alcohol fatty acid and glycerin. The facilities will become one of the country's largest integrated oleo-chemical industry .
GAJAH TUNGGAL TO INVEST US$ 50 MILLION. PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk, the largest tire producer in Southeast Asia will invest US$50 million until next year to expand its production capacity. The capacity expansion plan is prompted by growing trend of demand for tires. The investment is part of a US$180 million plan to expand the production capacity of its factory in Tangerang, Banten, to be implemented by phases since five years ago. Vice President Director and Chief Operation Officer of PT Gajah Tunggal Tbk Buddy Tanasaleh said the project is progressing and is expected to be completed by the end of next year.
PERTAMINA ACQUIRES 15% STAKE IN SEMAI II BLOCK . PT Pertamina has acquirted a 15% stake in Semai II block off the southern coast of West Papua . Upstream director of PT Pertamina Bagus Setiardja said an acquisition agreement was already signed on June 17, 2010 and the formality of the acquisition is being processed by the Upstream Oil and Gas Regulator (BP Migas) and the Oil and Gas Directorate General. The agreement was signed by Pertamina, PT Pertamina Hulu Energi, Murphy Oil Corp, Inpex Corp, and PTT EP Thailand. Under the agreement Pertamina will provide US$149.5 million to help finance the operation. With the 15% take ove rby Pertamina, the shares of three old shareholders - Murphy, PTT EP, and Inpex - will be cut by 5 percentage from 33.3% to 28.3% each. The produciton sharing contract with the three old shareholders was signed with the government in November, 2008 with Murphy as the operator.
JAMSOSTEK TO ACQUIRE 20% STAKE IN BUKOPIN. State-owned workers' insurance company PT Jamsostek said it has prepared Rp500 billion to acquire a 20% stake in PT Bank Bukopin Tbk. Jamsostek will acquire the stake from Yayasan Bina Kesejahteraan Warga Bulog (Yanatera Bulog) and the government. The acquisition plan is now in the process of due diligence study. Jamsostek's President Hotbonar Sinaga said the company has named Mandiri Sekuritas to help in the process of acquisition. Sinaga said Jamsostek could use the bank's networks including BPR Swamitra to help in its expansion program. There are 560 units of BPR Swasmitra having business ties with Bukopin . Currently Bukopin is 42.71% owned by Koperasi Pegawai Bulog Seluruh Indonesia (Kopelindo), 17.32% by the government, 12.19% by Yanatera Bulog, 6.7% by Koperasi Perkayuan Apkindo and 20.99% by investing public .
FIRST MEDIA TO DEVELOP WIMAX. PT First Media Tbk will invest US$ 350 million to developm high speed wireless internet service based on the technology of Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (Wimax) in 10 years. So far the company already spent US$50 million , Hengkie Liwanto, the president of First Media said. Wimax technology is the 4th generation (G4) of wireless internet broadband service. Wimax constitutes a set of customer premise equipment (CPE) and base station prepared by PT Teknologi Riset Global (TRG) passing trial operation test by the Post and Telecommunications Directorate General in mid June, 2010. The company, therefore, could start commercial operation fully . It is set to have 100,000-150,000 subscribers in the first year of operatiton starting June 2011. The number is forecast to rise to 500,000 in the third year and to 1 million in 2015. Potential subscribers in Jakarta alone is around 5 million. The market share will depend on the prices of Wimax equipment. A unit of CPE at present is priced at US$ 200. The price is expected to be reduced with the advancing technology.