Bakrie to decide whether to sell Indocopper stake

JAKARTA (JP): The shareholders of Bakrie & Brothers are expected to decide today whether the company will sell its stake in Indocopper Investama Corporation (IIC), which owns 9.36 percent of Freeport Indonesia.

Bakrie & Brothers' president Tanri Abeng said yesterday that the shareholders' annual meeting today would decide whether there was to be a sale.

He refused to name potential buyers but said they would have to meet Bakrie's requirements. He did not elaborate.

Asked if Muhamad (Bob) Hasan had formally bade for Bakrie's stake in Indocopper, he said: "I think it is unethical for me to mention names of potential buyers," he said.

A senior Bakrie executive told the Jakarta Post earlier that financial advisors, Salomon Brothers and Forest International, had advised the company to sell its Indocopper shares because Indocopper was not part of its core business, which comprises telecommunications, infrastructure, plantations and strategic investment.

Tanri said the financial advisors had suggested that Bakrie injected the cash from the sale into its core business.

"We have to comprehensively and thoroughly study the advice," he said.

He said that if Bakrie sold its stake in Indocopper it would do so at market prices.

But he said his company would not make an open tender even though more than two firms had expressed interest in the Indocopper stake.

Chairman of the Bakrie Group Aburizal bakrie noted earlier that the Indonesian government and Indocopper each now held 9.36 percent of Freeport Indonesia. The rest was held by PT Freeport- McMoran Copper and Gold of the United States.

In December 1992, Freeport-McMoran bought 49 percent of the shares of IIC so that 49 percent of IIC was owned by Bakrie and Brothers, 2 percent by Bakrie Investindo and 49 percent by McMoran.

Local dailies reported late last week that the country's timber baron Bob Hasan was likely to acquire Bakrie & Brothers' stake in Indocopper through Nusamba group.

Nusamba group is controlled by three foundations chaired by President Soeharto. Bob Hasan and the President's eldest son Sigit Hardjojudanto each own 10 percent of the widely diversified business group.

Earlier reports said that Bob Hasan had bought 50 percent of PT Askatindo Mineral Karya, Bre-X's local partner in the Busang gold mine. (09)