Indomobil's owner revealed, questions remain

Berni K. Moestafa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Reacting to suspicion that the Salim Group might have regained control of PT Indomobil Sukses International, Indomobil's new owners revealed their identities on Monday, but fell short of proving that theirs was not Salim's money.

Meanwhile, State Minister for State Enterprises Laksamana Sukardi was undecided over the possibility of retendering Indomobil, an automotive company formerly owned by Salim.

"I cannot confirm (the retender) since investors are sensitive to things like this. If we have to retender this, nobody would want to buy from us again," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

And the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), which sold Indomobil, defended itself against charges it failed to secure the approval of the Financial Sector Policy Committee (FSPC) for the sale. IBRA said they did not need FSPC's approval.

The shady sales process sparked suspicion that Salim had regained control of Indomobil, which IBRA took over through a debt settlement deal with the group.

Only after acquiring some of its assets pledged to the government, Salim was banned from buying back any other assets until it settled its debts with IBRA.

Notariza Taher, senior vice president of PT Trimegah Securities, which led a consortium of investors which purchased Indomobil, said: "None of the members of the Trimegah consortium is affiliated to the Salim Group."

Last month IBRA sold a 72.63 percent stake and convertible bonds in Indomobil for only Rp 625 billion (about US$60.1 million) -- far below its assets-transfer value of Rp 2.14 trillion.

Notariza said the new owners of Indomobil were PT Cipta Sarana Duta Perkasa, a consortium whose members were PT Lautan Luas Group, PT Multi Internasional Group, and the Singapore-based investment firm, Parallax Capital Management.

The publicly listed Lautan Luas is one of Indonesia's largest local chemical distribution and manufacturing companies.

Multi Internasional is a Surabaya-based widely diversified group with businesses ranging from property and building materials to motorcycles and spare parts.

Singapore's Parallax is a regional investment firm with clients in Asia, the U.S. and Europe.

But a key question of whether or not their investment was funded with Salim's money was left unanswered during the meeting.

As an investment firm, the identities of Parallax's clients are confidential.

Eugene Park, one of the four partners at Parallax said it represented no one with ties to the Salim Group.

He also denied Salim had approached Parallax in Singapore.

While Indomobil's single largest shareholder, Lautan Luas turned out not to be the actual owner of Indomobil.

An owner of Lautan Luas said the funds for Indomobil had come from the two families who jointly controlled Lautan Luas.

They were the Hajadi and Masrim families, said Pranata Hajadi.

"Lautan Luas did not raise any funds to acquire Indomobil, but its owners did," he said, adding a foreign bank lent them some of the money. He refused to go into details of the funding source.

Indomobil's third owner, Multi Internasional is 99 percent owned by Kuswanda Tanujaya, who was not present at the meeting.

Trimegah did not state the funding source behind Kuswanda.

Meanwhile, IBRA denied it had violated its own procedures by skipping FSPC's approval on Indomobil's sale.

According to the agency, IBRA does not need the FSPC's authority for disposing assets worth more than Rp 1 trillion.

But head of IBRA asset disposal Dasa Sutantio admitted there had been confusion on the issue prior to Indomobil's sale.

"We confirmed to the FSPC secretariat, which then told us that we didn't need one (approval)," Dasa told a press briefing.

FSPC secretary Syafruddin Temenggung could not be reached. The FSPC groups together senior economic ministers in charge of IBRA's debt restructuring deals worth more than Rp 1 trillion.

Dasa said IBRA had obtained the approval of the Finance Minister back in 1999, which he said was enough.

That contradicts with sources at IBRA claiming that no asset worth more than Rp 1 trillion can be sold without the FSPC's consent.

Identities of Indomobil's 72.61 percent stake

(Investors -- Stake % -- Source of Funds): Lautan Luas -- 43.2 -- founding shareholders; Parallax Capital -- 36.8 -- clients; Multi Internasional -- 20.0 -- unclear.