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)