Sri Mulyani, Teddy named commissioners

JAKARTA (JP): Shareholders of listed PT Unilever Indonesia approved on Tuesday the appointment of the secretary of the National Economic Council (DEN) Sri Mulyani Indrawati and chief executive of automotive concern PT Astra International Theodore "Teddy" P. Rachmat as new commissioners.

"Sri's position in DEN will certainly help the company, and Teddy is a professional with a high capability in supervisory works," said Unilever director Hanafiah Djadjaminarta after the company's annual and extraordinary shareholders' meetings on Tuesday.

The appointment of Sri and Teddy will enlarge Unilever's board of commissioners to five members.

The three members who retain their positions are Andre Rene van Heemstra as the chief commissioner and Robby Djohan and Sapto Sutarno as commissioners.

The shareholders' meeting also approved the disbursement of a dividend of Rp 2,500 per share for the 1999 financial year.

It said the above dividend distribution was a 89 percent increase on the previous year.

Hanafiah said Unilever also planned to have a 1-for-10 stock split within this year to improve the liquidity of the company's share trading.

Such a stock split will lower the par value of the company's nominal shares to Rp 100 each from Rp 1,000 at present, he said.

"The stock split is subject to approvals from the company shareholders, the capital market watchdog and other circumstances, such as progress in the implementation of scripless trading on the local exchange," Hanafiah said.

Unilever, listed on the Jakarta and Surabaya stock exchanges, has six factories making a wide range of products including food, ice cream, tea-based beverages, margarine, cosmetics soaps and detergents.

Unilever is the company with the most expensive share price on the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX). Its shares closed on Tuesday at Rp 90,000, up Rp 1,000 from Rp 89,000 the previous day.(udi)