PLN will decide private partners in April: Zuhal
PLN will decide private partners in April: Zuhal
JAKARTA (JP): The State Electricity Company (PT PLN) is in
the last stage to select partners in the establishment of
subsidiaries which will be privatized this year, its president
says.
Zuhal told reporters here yesterday that the partners will
be selected out of the 40 domestic and foreign companies which
have applied for cooperation with PLN.
"We will announce the results in April," he said.
Zuhal declined to elaborate how many partners PLN is seeking
in the company's restructuring program.
He also said that PLN still has not decided how many
subsidiaries it wants to establish. "It could be three, four or
even six subsidiaries. The important thing is that all of them
will offer their shares to the public later this year," he said.
PLN became a limited company last year.
The executive also said that PLN will delineate two roles
for the coming partners. They will become either "joint-venture
partners" or "strategic allies", he said.
"At the current stage, I can only say that PLN needs joint-
venture partners to operate its new facilities and it requires
strategic allies for the operation of its existing facilities,"
Zuhal said.
He declined to elaborate on the possible stakes for the
partners.
Zuhal said last September that PLN was to set up two
subsidiaries comprised of PT Pembangkit Jawa Bagian Barat, which
will be responsible for the operation of PLN's power plants in
West and Central Java, and PT Pembangkit Jawa Bagian Timur, which
will control the operation of power stations in East Java and
Bali.
He also said that at the time, four power corporations had
applied as partners in the planned subsidiaries. The four firms
were National Power Corp of Britain, EDF Power Corp. of France
and two unnamed firms of the United States.
Zuhal also stated that PLN will also consider overseas
listing for the privatization plan.
PLN currently operates power plants with a total capacity of
12,000 megawatts (MW) and 11,000 kilometer transmission networks.
It plans to set up more power plants with a combined capacity of
13,000 MW in the coming five years. (hdj)