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.