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)