No woes on Astra investment

No woes on Astra investment

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): More than 18 months after it bought a
23.1 percent stake in Indonesian car maker PT Astra
International, Singapore-listed Cycle & Carriage Ltd. says it has
no regrets about its decision to enter Indonesia, the Business
Times reports.

Kour Nam Tiang, general manager of Cycle & Carriage and a
director at Astra, told the newspaper in an interview that the
decision to invest in Indonesia despite the uncertain political
climate has proven to be "100 percent correct".

"It has given us more than a third leg, because our investment
in Astra now overwhelms all our other businesses," Kour said.
Cycle & Carriage "may now be considered to be an Indonesian risk
stock, but we couldn't have asked for a better investment."

In March last year, a Cycle & Carriage-led consortium - which
included Jakarta-based private equity firm Batavia Investment
Management, the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. and
investment firm Lazard Freres of France - successfully bid for a
38.4 percent stake in Astra from the Indonesian Bank
Restructuring Agency, paying US$506 million, the report said.