Deloitte & Touche denies wrongdoing
Deloitte & Touche denies wrongdoing
Dow Jones, Jakarta
Deloitte & Touche Tohmatsu International denied Monday that it
had acted improperly in its role as adviser to the Indonesian
Bank Restructuring Agency, or IBRA, over the sale of assets
formerly owned by the Salim Group.
Indonesia's antimonopoly commission, known locally as KPPU,
last week fined IBRA Rp 5 billion (about US$562,000) for
allegedly breaking competition laws in last year's sale of former
Salim unit PT Indomobil Sukses International, this country's
second-largest auto maker.
The commission charged that the bids were too low, that the
one-month tender process was too short, and that there was
possible collusion among the participants.
It also announced fines for Deloitte Touche, IBRA's advisor on
the transaction, and the buyer, a consortium led by local
securities firm PT Trimegah Securities. Those firms were also
barred from participating in future IBRA asset sales. But the
commission didn't cancel the deal, which raised Rp 625 billion
for the government.
"The firm denies all allegations made against it in a decision
issued by the KPPU, and said it will defend its actions and
reputation vigorously and is confident in its formal appeal of
the KPPU decision in accordance with the prevailing law,"
Deloitte Touche said in a statement.
Deloitte Touche said the commission hadn't made any
investigations of the company prior to issuing its verdict.
PT Holdiko Perkasa, a unit of IBRA that is charged with
selling companies taken over from the Salim Group, said last week
it would suspend further asset sales while it took legal advice
over KPPU's claims.
Holdiko has been one of few arms of the government that has
moved aggressively over the past few years. It raised the bulk of
the revenue generated by IBRA through asset sales last year. The
sales were crucial to help plug a huge budget deficit built up
from rescuing the banking sector after the 1997 Asian financial
crisis.
But its efforts also have been accompanied by unproved
allegations that the sales have enabled the Salim family, once
the nation's largest conglomerate, to recover some of its
companies at bargain-basement prices.