Singapore-listed firms with RI links sidelined

Singapore-listed firms with RI links sidelined

SINGAPORE (Reuters): Singapore-listed companies with Indonesian links have been mostly sidelined by investors as Jakarta's crisis intensified, investment analysts said yesterday.

They also said many of these companies had relatively limited businesses inside Indonesia and should continue to be viable concerns.

But a handful have been more speculative buy and investors had been avoiding them even before the onset of the current crisis, they added.

Among the more speculative companies are infrastructure based Van Der Horst and engineering-based L&M Group Investments.

"Nobody looks at some of these companies any more because there is very little access to company officials and you do not know what they are doing," said an analyst with a Singapore broking firm who declined to be identified.

"There is no interest in these stocks, unlike in 1994 when there the market was very bullish and companies with Indonesian connections did extremely well," she said.

Van Der Horst and L&M used to be controlled by a group of Indonesian businessmen, including President Soeharto's son Bambang Trihatmodjo, until some of their shareholdings were sold off by banks which had held them as collateral late last year.

Van Der Horst is now considering a proposal by another Indonesian businessman to inject a telecom firm into the company.

But analysts said there other companies with more stable businesses like breadmaker QAF Ltd and ship operator Osprey Maritime.

"OAF makes Gardenia bread and most of its profit comes from selling bread in Singapore and Malaysia," said Nora Cheng, analyst with HSBC James Capel.

Analysts said that while QAF, controlled by Indonesia's Salim group, has made a takeover offer for PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, the deal has not gone through.