Astra confirms Henry Pribadi's transactions

JAKARTA (JP): PT Astra International confirmed yesterday that one of its majority shareholders, Henry Pribadi, sold 30 million worth of his Astra shares through the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) last month.

A public relations officer at Astra said, however, that the record on the portion of the shares held by Henry's company, Number 6 Enterprises Ltd., remained unchanged at 3.26 percent as of Sept. 30, because new investors had yet to register their shares at Astra's share registration office.

Early this week, businessman Putera Sampoerna and his cigarette company PT HM Sampoerna disclosed that they had bought up to 12 percent of Astra's shares but declined to explain from whom they were acquired.

Astra did not mention the value of Henry's transactions but said that Henry sold his shares in four different transactions.

In a report to the JSX dated Oct. 1, Astra said that Henry's sale transactions were carried out on Sept. 4, 5, 17 and 24.

Meanwhile, investors continued to take profit on Astra shares yesterday.

A dealer with a Japanese-based brokerage told The Jakarta Post that Astra is no longer interesting in terms of short-term investment.

"A profit taking trend emerged yesterday and might continue in the next few days," the dealer said.

Astra's share price closed two points lower yesterday at Rp 3,600 after hitting a low of Rp 3,550, while its foreign price stood at Rp 4,550.

The dealer said several foreign brokerages, particularly the newly-established SBC Warburg, continued heavy buying of Astra shares.

He said that two crossing transactions were executed by SBC Warburg yesterday at Rp 4,000 and Rp 4,750 per share, with trading volumes of one million shares and 3.36 million shares respectively.

Another dealer with a London-based securities firm said that technically, the investors' profit taking action was responsible for the further decline of Astra's share price.

"But I would prefer to say that several parties who already own Astra shares are expecting lower prices because they are still looking for more shares," he told the Post.

He said that in a normal market mechanism, Astra's share price should continue to increase as long as "takeover" rumors are still on the market. (alo)