Satelindo approves third stake-acquirer

Satelindo approves third stake-acquirer

JAKARTA (JP): A subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom,
which agreed last week to buy a 25-percent stake of PT Satelit
Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo), may sell a part of its newly-
acquired stake to a third party, according to a Satelindo
commissioner.

"Documents signed by both commissioners and executives of
Satelindo and Deutsche Telekom in Jakarta last month included an
agreement allowing Deutsche Telekom to invite a third party to
buy part of the Satelindo stake that it would buy," a Satelindo
commissioner, Setyanto P. Santosa, said yesterday.

The agreement on the stake acquisition was signed at a
ceremony in Germany last week in the presence of President
Soeharto.

Setyanto, who is also president of the state-owned domestic
telecommunications company PT Telkom, said that Satelindo and
Deutsche Telekom had discussed the matter during negotiations.

After the acquisition, Satelindo is 45 percent owned by PT
Bima Graha Telekomindo, a subsidiary of the widely diversified
Bimantara group, 22.5 percent by Telkom, 7.5 percent by the
state-owned international telecommunications operator PT Indosat
and 25 percent by Deutsche Telekom's subsidiary, DeTeMobil.

Satelindo runs digital telecommunications, the Palapa-C
satellites and international calls.

Deutsche Telekom, with a US$586 million bid, won the 25-
percent stake over its rivals Cable & Wireless of Britain, AT&T
and Nynex of the United States and France Telecom in a tough
tender process. In a surprise move, Satelindo rejected Cable &
Wireless at the last moment in favor of Deutsche Telekom in late
February.

Financial Times, a Hong Kong-based economics daily, reported
recently that Cable & Wireless may still be able to gain a stake
in Satelindo, as DeTeMobil planned to sell half of its 25 percent
stake in Satelindo to the British firm.

Telkomsel

Setyanto also said yesterday that a team comprised of Indosat
and Telkom executives was currently studying a proposal from a
domestic firm intending to buy shares in the digital
telecommunications operator PT Telkomsel.

Telkomsel is 51 percent owned by Telkom and 49 percent owned
by Indosat. The Ministry of Finance approved the establishment of
the company, whose legal and management affairs are still being
processed, last September.

Several private firms, including PT Telekomindo of the
Rajawali Group, have shown interest in acquiring a majority stake
in Telkomsel.

Meanwhile, a prominent legal expert, M. Dimyati Hartono, told
The Jakarta Post yesterday that it was the task of the Ministry
of Finance to decide whether or not a private firm is allowed to
own a stake in a state-owned company.

He said that policies and regulations on telecommunications
needed strengthening because the global telecommunications
industry had grown very rapidly.(icn)