Pelindo II gets preferred bidder

JAKARTA (JP): The government named on Wednesday Grosbeak Pte Ltd, a unit of Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa, the preferred bidder for a 49 percent to 51 percent stake in PT Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), a unit of state-owned port operator PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II.

The Office of the State Minister of the Empowerment of State Enterprises announced that the government had received four final bids for the stake, from Grosbeak, International Container Terminal Services Inc of the Philippines, P&O Ports of Australia and Stevedoring Services of America International/PT Samudera Indonesia.

"The four bids from the potential investors have been evaluated and based on the bids submitted, Grosbeak Pte Ltd has been selected as the preferred bidder by the privatization Evaluation Committee," said Sofyan A. Djalil, an assistant to the state minister of the empowerment of state enterprises.

He did not disclose financial details of the transaction.

Denmark's AP Moller Group, which operates Maersk Lines, and Taiwan's Peony Investment S.A., a unit of the Evergreen Group, initially showed interest in the stake but did not place final bids.

Sofyan said the government would start negotiations with Grosbeak as the preferred bidder to finalize the transaction.

He said negotiations should be finalized by the end of this month so that financial closure of the transaction could be reached by the end of March, the end of the current 1998/1999 fiscal year.

State Minister of the Empowerment of State Enterprises Tanri Abeng commented: "The completion of this transaction with Hutchison Whampoa, a world leader in the container terminal operator industry, is expected to serve as a threshold towards Indonesia's economic recovery."

Hutchison Whampoa is the world's largest container port operator, handling over 10 percent of the world's containers through its 18 ports in Europe, Asia and America.

If Hutchison Whampoa's Grosbeak wins the bid, it will operate container terminals I and II with a total capacity of 1.5 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEUs) at the country's busiest port, Jakarta's Tanjung Priok, through JICT.

JICT is a profitable center for PT Pelindo II. It accounted for 50 percent of Pelindo II's Rp 200 billion (US$23 million at the current exchange rate) profit in 1997.

Pelindo II president Herman Prayitno said that the entrance of Grosbeak marked "the beginning of significant value addition to the business of Pelindo II because the investor is expected to develop JICT into a world-class container terminal operator."

Grosbeak, if it wins the bid, is expected to help boost the capacity of the two container terminals under JICT to 2.7 million TEUs to compete with the popular Singapore port.

Pelindo is one of five state firms to be privatized by the government by the end of this fiscal year, to raise about $1 billion in fresh funds. The government initially planned to raise $1.5 billion by selling stakes in 12 state firms during this fiscal year, but scaled the number down to six due to the economic crisis and bearish market sentiment.

The government has so far only sold a 14 percent share in cementmaker PT Semen Gresik to Mexico's Cemex SA for $1.38 percent per share, raising $121.5 million. (rid)