Sampoerna has 15% Astra stake

Sampoerna has 15% Astra stake

JAKARTA (JP): The Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam)
confirmed yesterday that Putera Sampoerna, the founder and
president director of cigarette maker PT HM Sampoerna, had
increased his PT Astra International share holding to 15 percent.

"But we are yet to get clarification on other investors'
positions, including PT Nusantara Ampera Bhakti (Nusamba),"
Bapepam's chairman, I Putu Gede Ary Suta, told journalists
yesterday.

Putu said Nusamba would not be exempted from the capital
market regulation requiring that investors, who buy a 5 percent
stake in a public company, notify the agency within ten days of
their purchase. But he said the agency was still waiting for
confirmation of Nusamba's purchase of Astra shares.

Nusamba commissioner Mohamad Hasan told Bisnis Indonesia on
Wednesday that Nusamba had sent a letter to Bapepam regarding its
Astra share holding.

A report distributed by Bapepam's information center yesterday
said Putera had acquired his Astra shares from foreign investors
in three separate transactions on the Surabaya Stock Exchange.

The transactions occurred on Oct. 23, Oct. 24 and Oct. 25.

The three transactions were valued at Rp 165.9 billion (for
33.1 million shares), Rp 131.6 billion (for 27.7 million shares)
and Rp 95 billion (for 20 million shares) on the three days
respectively.

Putera's holding in Astra would have exceeded 15 percent if he
had not sold some of the shares. The report said that on Oct. 23
Putera sold 20.3 million shares worth Rp 81.3 million to local
investors on the Surabaya exchange.

On Sept. 26, Putera owned 9.8 percent of Astra's shares worth
Rp 436 billion, with share prices ranging from Rp 2,600 to Rp
4,750.

Putera would have spent more than Rp 750 billion accumulating
his 15 percent stake, or 174.5 million shares, in Astra.

On Putera's statement, the chief dealer of a London-based
brokerage told The Jakarta Post that the market had anticipated
it.

"There was speculation that Putera should have owned a stake
of up to 25 percent in the names of several different investors.
So, I prefer to say that Putera has just reduced his position to
only 15 percent," the dealer said.

"Therefore, Putera's statement would not bring any significant
impact to the market," he said.

He said Putera and his affiliated parties had planned to buy
more than 25 percent of Astra, even though the share price
reached Rp 6,000.

The Surabaya Stock Exchange confirmed that another big Astra
transaction occurred yesterday in which 51.8 million shares were
traded in one transaction worth Rp 211.2 billion. (alo)