CMNP signs agreement to end loan controversy

CMNP signs agreement to end loan controversy

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed toll road operator PT Citra
Marga Nusaphala Persada (CMNP) has formally transferred a
personal loan worth US$70 million, secured from the sultan of
Brunei, to a company owned by the eldest daughter of former
president Soeharto.

CMNP director Teddy Kharsadi said on Tuesday the agreement on
the transfer of the controversial loan to PT Citra Lamtoro Gung
Persada (CLG) was signed in Brunei last week.

"We signed a tripartite termination agreement to clear up this
loan mess with the Brunei Investment Agency and CLG last Friday
in Brunei Darussalam," Teddy said after the extraordinary
shareholders meeting.

In 1988, the Brunei agency, owned by Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah,
extended a soft loan worth $70 million to former president
Soeharto's eldest daughter Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, through the
toll-road operator of which she is president.

Teddy said CMNP never used any part of the loan, because all
proceeds of the loan had been immediately transferred to CLG in
the same year the loan was acquired.

The Brunei agency last December demanded partial repayment of
the loan to CNMP. The loan, however, never appeared on CMNP's
balance sheet.

The agency said that CMNP should have started repaying the
principal through installment beginning in 1995. But the agency
then withdrew its claim to CMNP last May and said that further
dealings regarding the loan would be taken up with CLG, the
company personally owned by Siti Hardiyanti.

Siti Hardiyanti, better known as Mbak Tutut, owns shares in
CMNP through CLG, which holds a 2.92 percent stake in the toll-
road company.

But the loan controversy then caused Prasetio Utomo, a public
accountancy firm hired to audit CMNP, to refrain from ruling on
the financial health of CMNP until the matter of the Brunei loan
was resolved.

The public accountancy's refrain from issuing comments on
CMNP's financial statements led to the suspension of the
company's share trading on the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) in
August.

Meanwhile, on the planned increase in tolls, Teddy said it was
up to the House of Representatives to decide, not the toll-road
companies.

"The decision is with the new members of the House of
Representatives which will be inaugurated on Oct. 1," Teddy said.

Earlier reports said that seven toll-road operators and the
Indonesian Tollway Association (ATI) had met with House of
Representatives Commission IV to discuss the proposal to raise
tolls.

The commission agreed in principle to the increase but a final
decision must await a plenary meeting of the House. The
Indonesian Consumers Foundation has objected to the proposal.

"The tolls may be increased very conservatively as only to
reflect the increase in our road maintenance costs," Teddy
speculated.

CMNP operates the Cawang-Tanjung Priok and Priok-Jembatan Tiga
toll roads in Jakarta, several toll roads in East Java and one in
Manila.

CMNP is owned by Yayasan Purna Bhakti Pertiwi (22.01 percent),
PT Jasa Marga (17.79 percent), PT Krakatau Steel (8.9 percent),
PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa (8.8 percent), PT Citra Lamtoro
Gung Persada (4.4 percent), PT Bhaskara Duniajaya (1.81 percent),
cooperatives (0.49 percent) and the public (35.8 percent). (udi)