British firm wins acquisition of Satelindo stake
British firm wins acquisition of Satelindo stake
JAKARTA (JP): Cable & Wireless of Britain is to sign an agreement tomorrow for the acquisition of a 25 percent stake of PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo), a telecommunications and satellite operator.
"I don't think I have to confirm anything. Everybody knew that Cable & Wireless would be the winner of the acquisition, after offering a direct placement of US$550 million in investment," Satelindo's general manager for marketing, Raymond Chatab, told reporters here on Friday night.
Raymond, who was attending the launching of the Nokia N-2010 GSM telephone handset, said the agreement will be signed by top executives of Cable & Wireless and Satelindo.
He refused to give any further details.
Satelindo is now 30 percent owned by the state-owned domestic telecommunications operator, PT Telkom. PT Indosat, the state- owned provider of international telecommunications services, owns 10 percent, while the remaining 60 percent is held by PT Bima Graha, a subsidiary of Bimantara, a diversified group of businesses owned by President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo.
Satelindo, which operates international telecommunications services, the Palapa-C satellites and a global system for mobile communications telephones (GSM), opened the tender for the 25- percent share acquisition early this year. Interested participants included Cable & Wireless, Nynex of the United States, Deutsche Telecom of Germany and France Telecom.
Cable & Wireless has been reported to be the favorite candidate because it has wide experience in Asia.
Due to the issuance of the new shares that will allow the participation of Cable & Wireless, the stakes of Indosat, Bima Graha and Telkom in Satelindo will change to 7.5 percent, 45 percent and 22.5 percent respectively.
GSM project
Raymond also said his company expects to net only 60,000 subscribers for its GSM telephones this year, far lower than the initial target of 100,000 subscribers.
Satelindo, which started offering its GSM telephones last September, failed to achieve its target of selling 30,000 units by the end of 1994 due to the scarcity of handsets on the world market.
Raymond said that the coverage of his company's GSM telephones has already reached the entire northern section of West Java and will reach East Java by the end of this year.
Another Satelindo executive, Rondang Silalahi, said that his company will penetrate the markets in Denpasar, Bali, and Medan, North Sumatra, by preparing 10,000 GSM lines in each of the two cities by the end of this year.
Satelindo, which offers six brands, Ericsson, Phillips, Alcatel, Motorola, Nokia and Siemens, of GSM handsets, will likely face tough competition in marketing its GSM telephones later this year because PT Telkomsel is ready to start its business in the near future. Telkomsel, which is 49 percent owned by Indosat and 51 percent by Telkom, has successfully operated its GSM pilot project on Batam and Bintan islands in Riau and will start its operation nationally later this year after preparing a number of international roaming features. (icn)