No changes in Satelindo's management

No changes in Satelindo's management

JAKARTA (JP): A commissioner of PT Satelindo, Aziz Mochdar,
denied yesterday that company's management board was in trouble.

"It is true that Satelindo's president, Iwa Sewaka, had
proposed to quit. But the proposal was not discussed during the
company's last shareholder meeting on Feb. 6. So, up to now,
there's no shift in Satelindo's board of directors," he said.

Satelindo is the operator of international calls and cellular
mobile phone as well as the Palapa-C satellites. A 45-percent
stake in Satelindo is held by PT Bimagraha Telekomindo, while the
state-owned telecommunication firms PT Telkom and PT Indosat own
22.5 percent and 7.5 percent shares respectively.

Last March, after fierce competition among bidders from Europe
and the United States, the German company DeTeMobil acquired 25
percent of Satelindo's shares in a contract worth US$586 million.

Sources in the telecommunications industry said that
differences sparked soon after the executives from the German
firm entered Satelindo's boards of commissioners and directors.

Of the eight commissioners of Satelindo, which are led by the
Director General of Tax Fuad Bawazier, there are two German
personnel. There are also two German executives on the company's
board of directors.

Iwa, an experienced executive both in telecommunications and
financial services, worked as the finance director of Telkom and
later as the president of PT Jasindo, a state-owned insurance
firm, before he was appointed as Satelindo's president in 1993.

He still worked in his office at Satelindo yesterday.

Aziz, who is a top executive of the widely diversified
business group Bimantara, said yesterday that the problem had
been resolved. (icn)