Inhutani says it may sell stakes<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned forestry companies said on Monday
\nthey might sell all their stakes in joint-venture industrial
\ntimber estates to their partners.<\/p>\n
The president of state-owned forestry company PT Inhutani III,
\nSoeyoto Wongsoredjo, said the company would quit its joint-
\nventure firm because it had no money to support the firm's
\noperations.<\/p>\n
\"Unless the acreage of the timber estates is lessened, we
\nwould rather sell our shares to our partners,\" he said on Monday.<\/p>\n
Soeyoto said that Inhutani III, Finnish forestry company Enso
\nand Gudang Garam had agreed to jointly develop a 300,000-hectare
\ntimber estate in Kalimantan.<\/p>\n
\"But due to our financing difficulties we have asked our
\npartners either to develop the project by themselves or decrease
\nthe acreage,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Soeyoto said Inhutani III would have to withdraw from the
\njoint venture after it failed to obtain capital from the
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
Minister of Forestry and Plantations Muslimin Nasution said in
\na recent directive that he would soon revoke ministerial decree
\nNo. 57\/1995, which stipulates that the equity of a joint-venture
\nindustrial timber estate consists of government shares derived
\nfrom the reforestation fund (14 percent), private capital (21
\npercent), interest-free loans from the reforestation fund (32.5
\npercent) and commercial loans.<\/p>\n
President of PT Inhutani II M. Said told the same news
\nconference that the company had agreed to sell its shares in
\nlogging company PT Menara Hutan Buana, controlled by Probosutedjo
\nwho is a half brother of ailing former president Soeharto.<\/p>\n
He said a foreign investor had made a proposal to the forestry
\nminister for buying Inhutani II shares. He declined to give
\ndetails.<\/p>\n
Said added that Inhutani II's divestment was also being forced
\nby a lack of funds.<\/p>\n
Until now, he said, government capital and soft loans derived
\nfrom the reforestation fund in Menara Hutan Buana, which manages
\nan 80,000-hectare estate in South Kalimantan, reached at least Rp
\n140 billion. (01)<\/p>",
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