Mon, 09 Sep 1996

Bapepam blocks Intisetia's bid

JAKARTA (JP): The Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) has formally opposed PT Intisetia Tritunggal's bid to take over a majority stake of publicly-listed PT Telagamas Pertiwi.

The capital market watchdog did not explain the reason of its objection, which was stipulated in its letter No. S-1408/PM/1996 issued last week.

Analysts, however, believed that the objection was made due to the bad records of Intisetia shareholders in their previous takeover moves.

Intisetia, owned by businessmen Harry Tanoesoedibjo, Tito Sulistio and Jopie Widjaya, made a tender-offer early last year to buy a 32 percent stake in Telagamas, a manufacturer of sports shoes and related components at Rp 1,400 per share.

The planned purchase of the stake would increase the three businessmen's stock holding in Telagamas to 51 percent because Harry, through PT Bakti Investama, already owns 19 percent of the company's shares.

Telagamas, which at present is 19.05 percent owned by PT Imasco Pacific, 19 percent by Bhakti Investama, 14.28 by businessman Rusdianto Hidayat, 12.5 percent by PT Telagamas Roma Sentosa, 9.53 percent by PT Santana Satria Reka and the remainder by the investing public, is one of a major export-oriented shoemaker in the country.

The company, which was listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange in January last year, booked total assets of Rp 51.13 billion (US$21.6 million) in 1995.

The company, which reported a net profit of Rp 2.13 billion in 1993 and Rp 2.17 billion in 1994, suffered a loss of Rp 659 million in 1995.

The sources said that the capital market authority had to oppose the tender-offer deal because Intisetia shareholders showed no strong commitment to improve the company's financial performances.

Jopie, one of Intisetia's trio shareholders, made a surprising move in early 1995 to acquire a 20 percent stake in publicly- listed Bank Papan Sejahtera. He then sold his entirely stake in the bank to benefit from capital gains of the shares in less than two months after he concluded the deal.

The trio's recent attempt to acquire a majority stake in Bank Mashill was also blocked by Bapepam on an insider trading charges.

The capital market watchdog is likely to also block Lippo Group's plan to restructure its finance division through a massive internal acquisition.

According to a high-ranking Bapepam official, a business restructuring made under a cross ownership could not be accepted.

Under the massive acquisition plan, PT Lippo Securities would buy an additional 27 percent in Lippo Life, an insurance firm, to increase its stock ownership in the latter to 32 percent from 5 percent at present.

Lippo Life would then purchase an additional 40 percent stake in Lippo Bank, to increase its share ownership in the bank to 45 percent from 5 percent at present.

According to the official, Lippo Bank already held a 11.67 percent stake in Lippo Life. Also, Lippo Life has an indirect 9.46 percent stake in Lippo Securities. (hen)