Govt hopes to finish Telkom sale next week
Govt hopes to finish Telkom sale next week
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government said it was optimistic about closing the sale of a
15 percent stake in state-owned telecommunications company PT
Telkom by next week to raise around Rp 4 trillion (US$381
million) in cash.
State Minister for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi said on
Thursday that the sale process would be conducted by the
financial advisors and that the price for the shares would be set
according to the current market price. He did not provide further
details.
Separately, deputy state minister for state enterprises
Mahmuddin Yasin was quoted by Reuters as saying that the sale
would yield more than Rp 4 trillion.
"A government decree on the sale will be announced today or
tomorrow (Friday)," he told reporters.
The publicly listed Telkom is part of several state-owned
companies included in the government's privatization program this
year. The program aims at raising around Rp 6.5 trillion in cash
to help finance the current state budget deficit, estimated at Rp
54.7 trillion or around 3.7 percent of gross domestic product.
So far, the privatization program has yielded nothing. Earlier
the government reduced the privatization proceeds target for this
year to Rp 5 trillion.
Shares in Telkom were unchanged at Rp 2,700 per share at the
market closing on Wednesday.
Telkom's director of operations and marketing Komarudin
Sastrakoesoemah when asked to confirm said that he "does not
know".
Telkom director of planning and technology Kristiono also said
that he was unaware that the government was to complete the sale
next week. "We don't know about the plan. It's a decision made by
the (the majority) shareholder (government)."
Telkom's president Muhammad Nazif had said earlier that he did
not think Telkom was ready to be sold at this time as the company
had yet to resolve its problems with its joint operation (KSO)
partners.
But Laksamana has repeatedly said that selling Telkom to a
strategic investor was the best privatization strategy amid the
current global economic slump because investors had a relatively
stronger appetite for telecommunications companies.
Telkom is Indonesia's largest telecommunications company and
currently holds exclusive rights over local and domestic long
distance telephone services.
The government holds a 66.2 percent stake in Telkom, while the
remainder is held by the public.
The other state-owned company is PT Indosat, which currently
holds a duopoly for international direct dialing (IDD) services
with its subsidiary PT Satelindo.