Indomobil's owner revealed, questions remain

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.