Govt seeks new CEO for Indosat

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government is currently shortlisting several top names to lead publicly listed PT Indosat, the country's second largest telecommunication firm, after its president director takes a new job to lead state oil and gas company PT Pertamina.

Roes Aryawidjaja, Deputy State Minister of State Enterprises for Mining, Energy, Telecommunications and Strategic Industries, said the government was now looking for suitable candidates to fill in the vacant position of Indosat president director.

"We are still in the process of shortlisting eligible candidates for the post, before being submitted and approved by the company's extraordinary shareholder meeting late next month," said Roes after the inauguration of Pertamina new executives on Wednesday.

Roes refused to name the candidates, but several sources at the ministry and Indosat believed that the government would propose three strong candidates: Eva Riyanti Hutapea, Hasnul Suhaimi and John Suwandy Hasyim.

Eva is former chief executive officer of publicly listed food giant PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, the world's largest instant noodle maker. She is Indosat independent commissioner since June 2004, and also president director trading company PT Usaha Kita Makmur.

Her strongest contender to head Indosat are Hasnul, a career executive at Indosat who currently the company's director of cellular marketing, and John, who is a former president director of the now-defunct PT Satelindo, a cellular unit of Indosat which has recently been merged into Indosat.

The government owns 15 percent share in Indosat, while the remaining 41.93 percent is owned by Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) and 43 by public investors.

Although it has a smaller portion of shares in the company, the government has the authority to solely propose candidates for president director post as it still owns A share series, or known also known as "golden shares".

The "golden shares" existed as the Indosat was formerly controlled by the government. Until now the government has no plan to sell the share after selling 41.93 percent of its shares to STT in 2001.

Indosat spokesman Andir Tambunan said the government could only propose candidates for other Indosat shareholders to approve via consensus or voting during the extraordinary shareholder meeting.

"Government can propose names, but it should be approved by other shareholders," said Andir.

Indosat shares ended higher by Rp 225 to Rp 4,275 on the Jakarta Stock Exchange on Wednesday, following the news.