Adhiyasa, Guthrie asked to settle case out of court

JAKARTA (JP): The South Jakarta District Court is urging PT Adhiyasa Saranamas and Malaysia's Kumpulan Guthrie Berhad to settle their dispute amicably out of court.

"We adjourned the trial until Aug. 27 to give both parties ample time to settle their dispute out of court," said a court official who refused to be identified.

Adhiyasa has filed a law suit against Guthrie for an alleged breach of contract.

Documents made available by the court to The Jakarta Post revealed that Guthrie had used Adhiysa's financial and investment consultancy service in acquiring 25 oil palm plantation companies from the Indonesian government.

The plantation companies were part of the various assets transferred by the Salim Group to the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) to repay its debt to the government.

Under the agreement, the documents said, Guthrie agreed to pay an agreed amount as a consultancy fee to Adhiyasa.

Last November 2000, Guthrie won the bid to acquire the 25 plantation companies covering a total area of more than 260,000 hectares in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. The total transaction reached US$350 million.

But Guthrie has persistently refused to pay the agreed consultancy fee, prompting Adhiyasa to file a suit against Guthrie at the South Jakarta District Court.

The suit was first heard on June 11 in the absence of any representative from Guthrie, followed by a second hearing on Aug. 13, which was attended by Guthrie's lawyers, the documents said.

The court has granted a request by Adhiyasa to sequester Guthrie's 20 percent stake in PT Salim Ivomas Pratama, its 21.59 percent stake in PT Serikat Putra and its 70 percent stake in PT Guthrie Pecconina Indonesia.

Guthrie confirmed the suit on Tuesday, saying Adhiyasa was suing it for $25.8 million.

It said its lawyers had asked it "to resist the suit" and the lawyers had asked the court to strike out or dismiss the sequestration request. (03)