Indosat to divest stake in several joint ventures
Indosat to divest stake in several joint ventures
JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed telecommunications company PT
Indosat is considering selling its stake in its joint venture in
Kazakhastan, company president Tjahyono Soeryodibroto said on
Thursday.
He said Indosat wanted to sell all of its stake, worth Rp 4
billion (about US$615,000), in Inkatel -- a telecommunications
joint venture company -- with Kazakhstan firm Jarig, due to the
drastic change in the country's regulations.
"The new regulation, which gives exclusive rights to a local
company, would certainly harm its joint venture's operation," he
said.
Tjahyono said negotiation of the sale was underway.
An executive at Indosat, who spoke under condition of
anonymity, said Indosat also planned to sell stakes in several
other overseas and local joint ventures.
The source said the joint ventures included Camintel in
Cambodia and Alfanet Telecom in Canada and other interests in
Indonesia, such as PT Menara Jakarta, PT Mitratel, Bantelindo,
Datacom Asia and PT Satelindo.
"However, no final decision has been made concerning any of
the companies. We are still studying all the possibilities," he
said.
Indosat says it has a 14.5 percent stake in Alfanet, 20
percent in Menara Jakarta, 7.5 percent in Satelindo and 5 percent
in Datacom Asia.
He said Indosat's decision to sell its stakes in overseas
subsidiaries was mainly driven by the company's business strategy
to focus on its domestic telecommunications business.
He said Indosat sold its stakes in Astel Tokyo Corporation and
Shuginami Cable Television in Japan earlier this year.
In regard to Satelindo, the source said Indosat would only
sell 6.5 percent of its 7.5 percent stake in the company, which
also provides a cellular phone service.
"There has been no attractive offer so far," he said, adding
that Indosat planned to move to another local cellular provider,
PT Excelcomindo Pratama.
He said the plan to acquire a stake in Excelcomindo was still
under negotiation.
The source added that in addition to the plan to sell its
stakes, Indosat also planned to increase its stake in PT Pramindo
Ikat Nusantara, a joint venture company involved in the
telecommunications joint operation scheme (KSO) with state-owned
company PT Telkom.
He said Indosat planned to increase its share from the current
13 percent to about 20 percent.
"This particular move was made to boost Indosat's position as
an SLI provider as well as to eye an opportunity to enter the
local fixed lined telephone business, currently dominated by PT
Telkom and its KSO partners," he said.
He declined to name the other shareholder in Pramindo
currently involved in negotiations over the share deal.
Pramindo is controlled by Astratel Nusantara with a 40 percent
stake, followed by France Cables et Radio 35 percent, Marubeni
Corporation 8 percent, International Finance Corporation 3
percent and NMP Singapore Pte. Ltd. 1 percent. (cst)