Government sells 100m shares in Indofood

JAKARTA (JP): The government has sold 100 million shares, or 53.76 percent of its total stake, in the publicly listed instant noodle maker PT Indofood Sukses Makmur for Rp 5,000 each, a senior government official said.

Sofyan Djalil, a communications assistant to State Minister of the Empowerment of State Enterprises Tanri Abeng, said in a press release on Thursday that the transaction, which was made on Wednesday, represented a 14 percent premium on the average price over the past month.

He said that the deal was brokered by Jardine Fleming.

He added that a total of six international securities firms, including ABN Amro, ING Barings, Credit Lyonnais, Goldman Sachs, and Merill Lynch, had been invited to join the tender process for the divestment.

Before the sale, the government owned 186 million shares in the noodle company, representing 10.18 percent of the company's total shares.

The government now owns 86 million shares in Indofood, representing 4.72 percent of the company's total shares, and will only sell its remaining shares at the "best price", Sofyan said.

Indofood share prices closed lower at Rp 4,900 on Wednesday, down from it Tuesday close of Rp 5,000.

Indofood is the world's largest instant noodle maker and one of Asia's most prominent food manufacturers. The company is 62.66 percent controlled by the Salim Group, Indonesia's largest conglomerate.

The group announced in the middle of last month that Japan's Nissin Food Corp and Hong Kong's First Pacific Group had agreed to purchase its 60 percent stake in Indofood for US$570 million, or Rp 3,950 per share.

A few days after the deal was announced, Tanri said that the government would only divest its stake in Indofood at a higher price than that offered to the Salim Group.

Analysts described the sale of the Salim Group's shares in Indofood to foreign-based companies as a strategy by the group's chairman to stave off a possible future seizure of his assets because of the increasing public demand to investigate instances of corruption, collusion and nepotism by businessmen during the Soeharto regime.

The chairman of the Salim Group, Liem Sioe Liong, is a close friend of Soeharto. (rei)