Mar'ie says laws don't restrict share ownership

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Finance Mar'ie Muhammad reiterated yesterday that none of the stipulations in the Capital Market Law No.8/1995 and its implementation rulings restricted share ownership in companies listed on domestic stock exchanges.

"The only restriction stipulated in the law is the one which limits foreign ownership to a maximum of 49 percent of the listed shares," Mar'ie said last night.

He said he hoped this would put to rest the controversy and answer the many questions raised in recent days about share ownership restrictions on the stock markets.

The controversy was set off by Minister of Cooperatives Subiakto Tjakrawerdaya's after a meeting with President Soeharto on Tuesday.

Subiakto alluded after the meeting that President Soeharto did not want to see individuals or business groups own more than 15 percent of listed companies.

"The objective is to prevent monopolies and to have corporate shares equitably owned by the investing public," Subiakto said when summing up his talks with the President.

Most analysts immediately criticized his remarks as misleading because share ownership and stock transactions on domestic stock exchanges are governed by the Capital Market Law.

Mar'ie said the Capital Market Law required transparency and full disclosures of share acquisition and ownership.

"The law, for example, obliges an investor who acquires up to 5 percent of a listed company to report his transactions to the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) within 10 days of the deal," the finance minister said.

He also cited a provision of the law which required an investor who buys up to 20 percent of a listed company with a view to controlling to make an open tender offer.

Mar'ie said a Bapepam ruling also allowed a company making an initial public offer to issue up to 10 percent of its shares to its employees in order to broaden the small investor base.

The issue of controlling ownership of a listed company surfaced last month during the huge Astra International acquisition by Putra Sampoerna, the chairman of the Sampoerna cigarette group.

Three foundations chaired by Soeharto later moved in to the market to buy more than 10 percent of Astra in a bid to dilute the Sampoerna family's controlling share ownership. (vin)