Govt seeks new CEO for Indosat

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.