Kotjo under pressure

Kotjo under pressure

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Several companies related to Indonesian businessman Johanes Kotjo plunged in active afternoon trading yesterday, dealers said.

At 07:54 GMT, marine engineering group Van Der Horst, of which Kotjo is chairman, was down Singapore 45 cents to S$6.05 after touching a low of S$5.95. Volume was an active 1.02 million shares. Its warrants were also down 45 cents to S$5.10.

ABR Holdings, where Kotjo is a director, was down 11 cents at S$2.44 with 361,000 shares traded.

United Pulp & Paper, a company in which Kotjo has an option to buy a major stake, was down nine cents to S$2.60 with 7.19 million traded. Shares in L&M Group Investments

Van Der Horst officials said Kotjo was traveling.

The Indonesian businessman was reprimanded publicly by the Stock Exchange of Singapore on December 29 for creating a false market in UPP shares and banned him and his nominees from holding new directorships for 30 months.

The exchange said Kotjo created a false market in UPP through a November 10 interview with a news agency. His consortium had already launched a takeover bid in UPP.

Kotjo appealed against the ban, but the SES rejected it.