Govt sells Indocement stake

Govt sells Indocement stake

JAKARTA: Indonesia's government said Friday it will sell a further 11 percent stake in PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa to Germany's Heidelberger Zement AG by the end of this year rather than in 2003 as earlier planned.

Heidelberger currently holds 62 percent of Indonesia's second largest cement producer.

The government is currently selling stakes in companies in a bid to raise Rp 6.5 trillion (about US$745 million) this year to help reduce the country's huge budget deficit.

A number of its large-scale privatization efforts - including plans to hand majority control of state-owned PT Semen Gresik to Mexico's Cemex SA - have stalled due to protests from nationalistic Indonesian lawmakers over selling assets to foreigners.

Indonesia's once-powerful Salim Group founded Indocement but was forced to hand control of the company to the government after its business empire collapsed in the 1997 Asian crisis. The government sold control of the company to Heidelberger in late 2000. -- Dow Jones