Lawbreakers must be punished: House
Lawbreakers must be punished: House
JAKARTA (JP): Members of the House of Representatives (DPR) urged the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) yesterday to take stringent action against those caught violating capital market rulings.
"A punishment is necessary to bring stock trading activities back on to the right track," Syaiful Anwar, the chairman of the Trade, Banking and Capital Market Commission of the House, said.
Tadjuddin Noer Said and Aberson Marle Sihaloho, both of the Budgetary Commission, also expressed the same warning, saying that the capital market watchdog's disciplinary measure is important in securing fair trading practices.
The House members' warnings were issued following reports of an alleged unfair transaction on Bank Mashill's shares on the Jakarta Stock Exchange.
Late last month, Tito Sulistio, a former president of the dissolved over-the-counter market and his associates bought around 17 percent of the bank's shares. Two weeks later, he announced his plan to sell his shares in the bank to Amir Gunawan, owner of a Singapore-based company, who at the time already held around 16 percent of the bank's shares.
The stock trading maneuver not only resulted in a significant increase in the price of Bank Mashill shares but also drew sharp criticism from capital market analysts.
The analysts charged Tito with intentionally issuing "noisy" statements after his deal to push up the price, a strategy which could have given him a large capital gain.
The analysts also said that Tito's plan was engineered to help Gunawan engineer a hostile takeover against Bank Mashill's management.
By buying Tito's shares, Gunawan would have controlled 31 percent of the bank's shares without having to contend with the tender offer regulation. The purchase of Tito's shares would pave the way for Gunawan to control the bank's management by buying some more shares from other individual investors through the market.
According to the tender offer regulation, any party wanting to own 20 percent of a listed company's shares should be announced to the public.
The House members said that the capital market watchdog should improve the trading surveillance so that a "strange" trading practice could be detected.
"Bapepam should investigate the Mashill shares transaction and take legal measures if the bank' share transaction was really unfair," he said, saying that such an approach is important to maintain the public's confidence in the country's capital market.
Bapepam chairman I Putu Gede Ary Suta said yesterday that he had summoned all parties involved in the transactions of the Mashill Bank shares.
He, however, refused to explain measures which could be taken by the capital market watchdog, if the transactions had broken the rule.
"I don't want to influence the team which is now doing the investigation," he said. (hen)