Kanindotex still open to other bidders: Mar'ie

Kanindotex still open to other bidders: Mar'ie

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad said
yesterday that the debt ridden Kanindotex is still open to other
bidders despite the entry of a major consortium to take over a
major stake of the textile company.

"If there are other investors wishing to take over the
company, go ahead," the minister told reporters amid an
allegation that the minister of finance had approved the
politically well-connected consortium led by Bambang Trihatmojo,
President Soeharto's son, to acquire a majority stake in
Kanindotex.

The minister rejected the allegation, saying that accepting
the offer of the consortium to acquire Kandindotex is the sole
right of creditors, which consists of two major state banks --
Bank Bumi Daya (BBD) and Bank Pembangunan Indonesia (Bapindo).

The consortium, which also includes Bambang Yoga Sugama, the
son of the former chief of the national intelligent agency and
Johannes Kotjo, a former executive of the Salim Group, recently
proposed to buy a 90 percent stake in Kanindotex. The other 10
percent would be sold to the Federation of Indonesian Batik
Cooperatives (GKBI), an independent institution appointed by the
creditors to temporarily manage the Semarang-based textile
producer.

The company, which operates at least three textile factories,
has an estimated bad debt of around Rp 763 billion (US$354.88
million) with BBD and Bapindo.

The consortium's takeover plan was, however, opposed by the
Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) and the
economic board of the ruling Golongan Karya (Golkar) faction.

Kadin and Golkar's economic board recently appealed to the
government to appoint GKBI, the present caretaker of the textile
company, as the majority shareholder of the textile company,
which is theoretically still owned by Robby Tjahyadi.

After submitting the draft law on the implementation of the
1994-1995 state budget yesterday, the minister of finance said
that the final decision on who will take over the textile company
is in the hands of the creditors.

The minister, however, said that any investors bidding for the
acquisition of the textile company should use fresh funds and
that a significant portion of the textile company should be sold
to GKBI.

Late last year, Bambang Trihatmojo, the chairman of the
Bimantara group, and Johannes Kotjo acquired the majority stake
in Mayatexdian, the publicly listed affiliate of Kanindotex.

Business analysts described the move of Bambang's consortium
to take over Kanindotex merely as a trick by Robby Tjahyadi to
regain control in Kanindotex, which is in actuality now owned by
BBD and Bapindo.

Rizal Ramli, the managing director of the Econit business
consulting firm, predicted that Kanindotex would be incorporated
into the listed Mayatexdian if the consortium takes over the
company.

"Merging Kanindotex into the publicly listed Mayatexdian is
another form of backdoor listing," Ramli said, adding that the
backdoor listing would enable the consortium to raise fresh funds
through the issuance of new shares to settle the company's bad
debts with the two banks.

Ramli cautioned that the sale of Kanindotex shares to the
public through the so named backdoor listing would be unfair
because the real value of the textile firm's assets would have
been manipulated.

The analyst charged that the assets of the textile company had
been greatly marked up by Robby Tjahyadi to enable him to get
large loans from the two creditors.(hen)