JF Indonesia Fund to hold restructuring

JF Indonesia Fund to hold restructuring

HONG KONG (Dow Jones): JF Indonesia Fund Inc., a Cayman Islands-based closed ended investment company, is proposing a restructuring that will give investors the opportunity to convert all or part of their holdings into JF ASEAN Trust, an open ended fund investing in Southeast Asia, the company said in a legal announcement Monday.

Alternatively, investors can elect to receive units in the JF Money. Since this is a readily realizable non-equity investment, shareholders may immediately redeem these units for cash. All three funds are managed by unlisted Jardine Fleming Unit Trusts Ltd.

Given the economic and political situation in Indonesia, the illiquidity of the company's shares and the small size of its asset base, the board of directors considers it to be in the shareholders' best interest to reconstruct the company. Since the Asian crisis began in 1997 the company's shares have traded at "a significant discount to their underlying net asset value," the board said.

While the reconstruction will allow investors who wish to pull out altogether to do so, the option to transfer the holdings into JF ASEAN Trust will enable investors who wish to stay invested in the region to do that, albeit with a reduced exposure to Indonesia, the company said.

As of May 30, the JF ASEAN Trust portfolio had a net asset value of US$103.6 million, while the net asset value of the JF Money Fund was US$388.5 million.

The proposals will need approval by shareholders at an extra general meeting to be held June 30.

The company will request that shares in JF Indonesia Fund be suspended from trading on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong from the close of trading July 4.