PT SI claims merging would be unhealthy
PT SI claims merging would be unhealthy
JAKARTA (JP): State-owned PT Surveyor Indonesia (SI) said on
Tuesday it would be best for the country to let the two state-
owned surveyor companies operate together rather than merge them.
Company president Toga M. Sitompul said that merging PT SI
with its sister company PT Sucofindo would be unhealthy because
it "would encourage monopolistic practices".
"This could have a negative impact on the national economy
which we are reforming now," Toga said.
A number of experts, including legislators, have called on the
government to merge the two state surveyors to improve business
efficiency and eliminate their competing interests.
Legislator La Ode Kamaluddin of the House of Representative's
Commission VIII for the state budget and finance contended that
it was too costly to have PT SI and Sucofindo operating together
in the same field.
Toga said that his side had no problem with the merger
proposal. If the government, as the majority shareholder of the
company, agreed with the suggestion, he would be happy to
facilitate the process.
"But if the reason is just to create more efficiency, I think
it's simplifying the matter and not true because SI is really
efficient and is performing well," he said.
He said SI had booked a net profit of Rp 57.1 billion (US$7.1
million) for the first nine months of this year, compared to Rp
15.1 billion recorded for the whole year of 1997.
SI's total assets were about Rp 323.5 billion as of September,
1998, compared to Rp 256,7 billion at the end of last year.
Toga also said the two state surveyor firms did not duplicate
each other as they had their own specialities.
He gave as an example the preshipment inspection of
Indonesia's imports in that SI had an extensive international
network whereas Sucofindo did not.
SI, he said, recently signed a memorandum of understanding
with a Vietnamese agency to validate the quality of gas pipes
destined for the agency. The value of the contract, however, was
quite small, only US$75,000.
The company had also strengthened its appraisal businesses by
cooperating with Knight Frank, a world-class appraisal firm.
"As you know, this company could compete with other companies
in the world market," he said. (29)