S'pore's investment arm keen on RI energy sector

S'pore's investment arm keen on RI energy sector

Singapore/Deutsche Press-Agentur

Tanasek Holdings, the Singapore government's investment arm, is still keen on Indonesia's energy sector despite scrapping plans to buy a stake in the country's largest publicly traded oil company, a spokeswoman said in a published report on Thursday.

"We are always open to opportunities," Eva Ho told The Business Times.

Everitt Investments, a unit of Temasek, disclosed on Wednesday it had stopped talks to buy a stake in PT Medco Energi Internasional, which has proven reserves of 154 million barrels of oil equivalent.

Negotiations "were halted for an indefinite period", Melli Darsa, Everitt's lawyer, said in a letter to the Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Agency filed with the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

Ho said the transaction could not continue after Indonesia's Paniogoro family, which founded Medco, decided to exercise its pre-emptive right to buy the stake.

Everitt said on Oct. 14 it was selected as the preferred bidder to buy a 38.4 percent stake in Medo by purchasing 44.9 percent of New Links Energy Resources.

New Links, which owns 85.5 percent of Medco, is partly owned by PTT Exploration & Production, Thailand's second-largest gas producer.

The Temasek purchase would have helped bolster Singapore's energy supplies, analysts said. Amid high oil prices, countries are scrambling to secure supplies.

India's largest refiner, Indian Oil Corp. had also bid for a stake in Medco.

The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation purchased in July a stake in Shell's refining operations in Malaysia.