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)