Listed firms told to sell shares to cooperatives

JAKARTA (JP): Listed companies are strongly urged to sell a portion of their shares to 617 new village cooperative units throughout the country in an effort to help develop small-scale businesses.

Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya said here yesterday that the policy, which was actually introduced by President Soeharto earlier in the 1990s, should be seen as a nationwide commitment to helping small-scale businesses.

"We expect that this year all the listed companies will participate in the program," he told 100 executives of listed companies at an open talk at the headquarters of the stock market supervisory board (Bapepam).

During the talk, which was chaired by Bapepam chairman Bacelius Ruru, the minister said that the government will not limit the number of the shares to be offered to cooperatives.

"In the first stage, we hope that the companies can sell from one to five percent of their total listed shares," he added. "Ideally, they can offer some 25 percent of their total shares to the cooperatives," he told The Jakarta Post after yesterday's talk.

He said that the listed companies are allowed to sell their shares at the nominal price.

He added that his ministry had evaluated the performance of all cooperatives in the country. "And of around 34,000 cooperatives currently operating, 617 are now in a good position to buy the shares," he said.

He noted that since 1990 there had only been 1,610 cooperatives owning shares of listed and unlisted companies.

Subiakto said that his ministry, in cooperation with Bapepam, will soon issue new rulings on the implementation of share ownership by cooperatives.

Most executives of the listed companies welcomed the government's appeal.

"The policy will have a constructive impact on the development of the country's stock exchange," Charles Queljoe, president of Lippo securities, told The Jakarta Post yesterday.

"Some of Lippo's subsidiaries, I know, have sold their shares to cooperatives. And we are committed to continuing the move," he added.

Jacob Kangjaya, PT Bayu Buana's director for planning and development, told the Post that his company will first study the rules of the game to be issued on the share ownership by cooperatives. (fhp)