IBRA won't cancel Indomobil sale<\/p>\n
Dadan Wijaksana, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said on Thursday
\nthat it would not cancel the newly concluded sale of a
\ncontrolling block of shares in publicly listed car assembler PT
\nIndomobil Sukses Internasional to a Trimegah-led consortium,
\narguing the transaction had followed normal procedures.<\/p>\n
IBRA Chairman I Putu Ary Suta insisted that the transaction
\nhad been completed after a fair and competitive bidding process.<\/p>\n
"The Indomobil disposal cannot be annulled, because (in
\nfinalizing the deal) we have followed the current system and
\nprocedures," he said, adding that the official signing of the
\ndeal would take place in one or two days' time.<\/p>\n
Ary Suta was responding to earlier calls from Mar'ie Muhammad,
\nhead of the Oversight Committee, the agency's watchdog, for an
\naudit of the transaction amid reports that the buyer of the
\nshares had been the Salim Group, the founder of the car maker.<\/p>\n
The government has banned Salim from repurchasing its assets
\nfrom IBRA.<\/p>\n
The agency received various assets from former bank owners,
\nincluding the Salim Group, to repay their debts to the
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
IBRA sold a 73.63 percent stake in Indomobil, the country's
\nsecond-largest car marker, on Dec. 10 to a consortium led by
\nTrimegah, one of the country's largest securities firms, at Rp
\n624.5 per share.<\/p>\n
The relatively low price has raised concern, particularly as
\nthe Indomobil shares had a price tag of Rp 2,500 per unit when
\nSalim transferred the company to IBRA in 1999.<\/p>\n
The sale process was completed within two weeks. Such a short
\nperiod also raised suspicion that Salim was the real buyer,
\nbecause as a founder of Indomobil it basically did not need much
\ntime to complete the due diligence process.<\/p>\n
It was also discovered that one of the clauses in the Trimegah
\npurchasing agreement stipulated that the buyer was entitled to
\nsell Indomobil to any interested party after two years.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, before making the decision on the Indomobil deal,
\nAry Suta had first discussed the decision with his team in the
\nagency, along with other related parties, including PT Holdiko
\nPerkasa and its financial adviser.<\/p>\n
PT Holdiko is in charge of overseeing the sale of assets taken
\nover by IBRA from the Salim Group.<\/p>\n
"And I have not seen any irregularities at any stage of the
\nprocess," he told reporters.<\/p>\n
As for the low share price, Ary simply blamed it on
\nunfavorable market conditions.<\/p>\n
"Our financial adviser even said that if we put the deal off
\nuntil next year, the price would probably be as high as it is
\nnow," he said, without elaborating.<\/p>\n
IBRA has raised around Rp 27.98 trillion in cash this year,
\nwhich is slightly higher than the Rp 27 trillion figure targeted
\nby the government to help finance the state budget deficit.<\/p>\n
The bulk of the proceeds come from the sale of assets
\ntransferred by the Salim Group. But many suspected that the Salim
\nGroup was behind most of the transactions.<\/p>\n
IBRA officials, however, have often played down such concern,
\npointing out that the government could cancel the transaction if
\nit later found out that the buyer was linked to the Salim Group.<\/p>\n
But still, it would be impossible to track down the real buyer
\nif Salim used a nominee to repurchase the assets.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ibra-wont-cancel-indomobil-sale-1447893297",
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