Cemex wins bid to buy stake in Semen Gresik

Cemex wins bid to buy stake in Semen Gresik

JAKARTA (JP): Mexico's Cemex SA has finally won the second
round bidding for a 14 percent government stake in publicly
listed cement producer PT Semen Gresik, a senior official
confirmed on Tuesday.

Sofyan Djalil, the deputy of the State Minister for the
Empowerment of State Enterprises, said the Mexican cement company
had automatically won the tender because no other bidders
submitted new offers to top its bid by Monday.

"Since there was no other bid offered by other companies,
Cemex is the winner. It is the final decision," he told The
Jakarta Post, adding the agreement on the sale of the
government's stake in Cemex would be signed next week.

"Hopefully Minister of Finance Bambang Subianto will sign the
sales purchasing agreement," he said.

Sofyan said that Cemex would pay US$1.38 per Semen Gresik
share or $114.6 million for the total 14 percent stake.

"Proceeds from the sales would be used to finance the state
budget," he said, adding that Cemex would also be allowed to
purchase at least another 6 percent of Semen Gresik's shares
through the local stock market.

Semen Gresik, based in Gresik, East Java, is the country's
largest cement producer and also owns two state-owned cement
producers -- PT Semen Padang in West Sumatra and PT Semen Tonasa
in South Sulawesi.

The government owns a 65 percent stake in the company while
the other 35 percent of its shares are held by the public.

The government had appointed Mexico's Cemex, the world's third
largest cement maker, as preferred bidder in early July, after it
won the first round. At that time, the government planned to
divest half of its stake or 35 percent of its total share at
$1.38 per share.

But the first privatization plan faced stiff public criticism
in early August because this plan would make the Mexican cement
maker the controlling stakeholder in the company.

The first bidding scheme also allowed Cemex to purchase
another 16 percent share in Semen Gresik through a tender offer
mechanism to become a majority shareholder.

The Indonesian government hastily dropped the first plan and
decided later in August to divest only a 14 percent stake in the
company.

Semen Gresik shares, however, coolly welcomed the news,
falling by Rp 1,075 to close at Rp 6,075.

"The market previously expected other contenders to top the
Cemex offer in the second bidding and offer a higher price than
Cemex," a broker with Trimegah Securindolestari said.

Other contenders in the second round were Germany's
Heiderlberger Zement AG, Switzerland's Holderbank and France's
Laferge Asia Pacific. (aly)