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)