PT Tri Polyta shares down from oversupply

JAKARTA (JP): PT Tri Polyta Indonesia, the country's largest producer of polypropylene resins, yesterday listed 257.5 million shares on the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) with a base share price of Rp 2,575 (US$1.09).

A JSX director, Mas Achmad Daniri, said the base price was determined by last week's $12 closing price per American Depository Receipt (ADR) on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

One ADR represents ten ordinary shares.

Tri Polyta was the first Indonesian company to be listed in the United States. In July 1994 it sold almost 74.75 million shares, 29 percent of its total shares, on the National Association of Security Dealers Automated Quotations' (NASDAQ) market system. On March 14, 1995, share trading was transferred to the NYSE.

Vice president Henry Pribadi said that, under a company- listing arrangement, all of Tri Polyta shares are listed on the JSX but only 74.75 million can be traded. The other 182.75 million shares are frozen for an eight-month period starting yesterday.

Daniri said Tri Polyta was the 238th company to be listed on the JSX. He said it has a market capitalization of Rp 663 billion, compared to the JSX's total capitalization yesterday of Rp 176 trillion.

"Jakarta's listing is aimed to help Indonesian investors to buy Tri Polyta shares and to facilitate American investors to convert their ADR into shares," Henry said.

Tri Polyta shares have dropped continually since they were listed on NASDAQ.

The current price around $12 per ADR is much lower than its initial $27 price two years ago.

In the third quarter of 1994, the shares' highest price was $27.63 per ADR. Its lowest was $21.75.

Prices peaked at $30.75 per ADR in the last quarter of 1994.

The shares' prices peaked at $26.25 per ADR in the first quarter of 1995 (against a lowest value of $21). They continued to declined in the second quarter, peaking at $22.63 ($16.50 lowest value). They rose slightly to $23.88 ($17.25 lowest value) in the third quarter but plunged back sharply to $17.75 ($10.50 lowest value) in the last quarter of 1995.

In the first quarter of 1996, the highest price was $14.63 and the lowest was $12.75. In the second quarter, the price was stagnant at around $12.

A company director, Markus Hartanto, claimed the weakening share performance was due mainly to an oversupply on the world polypropylene market following China's move to cut imports of the product from June last year.

Moreover, according to Markus, the decline was attributable to new listings by some Asian competitors on the NYSE which gave investors more alternatives.

Henry said that other petrochemical companies were hurt by last year's oversupply.

Tri Polyta's 1995 net profit was only Rp 64.9 billion compared to Rp 70.8 billion in 1994. This is despite a 22 percent increase in sales to Rp 587 billion in 1995.

Tri Polyta's earnings per ADR dropped from $1.50 in 1994 to $1.09 last year. (alo)