Bambang's stake in VDH

Bambang's stake in VDH

SINGAPORE (AFP): A son of Indonesian President Soeharto has raised to more than 10 percent his stake in Singapore's publicly listed power and infrastructure company Van Der Horst (VDH).

Bambang Trihatmodjo, who controls Indonesian conglomerate Bimantara Group, said in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Singapore late Thursday that he had bought 4.2 million shares at an average price of S$6.29 (US$4.49) each.

The purchase, raising his stake in VDH to 10.26 percent from 6.18 percent, is likely to trigger even more speculative interest in VDH, trading actively over the past two weeks as it surged from around S$5 in late May to a high of S$6.50 this week.

Bambang is believed to be a close business associate of VDH executive chairman Johannes Kotjo.

Both of them were part of a consortium which recently struck a deal with two Indonesian state banks to take over financially crippled textile maker Kanindo Group.