Govt to keep Gresik share lead

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly-listed state cement company PT Semen Gresik yesterday assured the House of Representatives that its plans to issue 444 million rights shares will not change the government's position as the company's majority shareholder.

Speaking before the Mines and Energy Commission of the House yesterday, the company's president, Anang Fuad Rifai, noted that with the planned rights issue, the government will still hold 73.1 percent of the company's expanded number of shares.

The company has announced that it will use the proceeds from the rights issue, which is to be offered in August or September, mainly to finance the purchase of two other state-owned cement companies, PT Semen Padang and PT Semen Tonasa, which are valued at Rp 1.06 trillion (US$479).

Semen Gresik, listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange in 1991, was the first state-owned company to be privatized. Last year, it recorded a net profit of Rp 54.7 billion, up 12.5 percent over the previous year.

Anang acknowledged that his company could still enjoy enough profits from the sales of its products with the old government- set local reference prices.

"It's true that we could still make profits with the old reference prices," Anang said. "And now we sell our cement at Rp 7,100, just below the new cement reference prices."

Last March, the government raised the local cement reference prices by 40 percent to an average of Rp 8,290 per 40-kilogram sack, which was then cut by 10 percent after strong criticism.

The government has said that the 40 percent increase in the cement reference prices was aimed at attracting new investment in the cement industry.

According to Semen Gresik's consolidated financial report, which was audited by the Drs. Santosa Harsokusumo and Associates accounting office, the company recorded total assets of Rp 1 trillion as of last December. (rid)