Founder sells 20 million shares of PT Matahari

BOGOR, West Java (JP): The majority shareholder of the publicly-listed retail company PT Matahari Putra Prima has sold 20 million of its shares to the public, to get capital gains of more than Rp 50 billion (US$22.1 million).

Hari Darmawan, founder and chairman of the Matahari Group, said on Thursday that he sold the 20 million shares, which he had acquired from Matahari's last rights issue through PT Mataharijaya Putraperkasa, at the price of Rp 4,200 per share.

Matahari issued 75,166 million rights shares in the middle of June at a par value of Rp 1,400 per share. Every one existing share had the right to buy two new shares.

Hari said he bought 20 million of the 75,166 million rights shares through Mataharijaya by using bank loans.

"We sold our 20 million shares to repay our bank loans. And we get capital gains of Rp 2,800 per share from this deal," Hari told journalists while attending Matahari's tea walk, which was participated in by some 6,000 of its employees, held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Indonesia's independence.

Hari noted that after selling the 20 million shares, Mataharijaya's stake in Matahari dropped by six percentage points to 53 percent.

"We plan to continually decrease our stake in Matahari, so that by the end of the next five years, the public will be Matahari's majority shareholder," Hari said. (rid)