Telkom denies Soros plans to buy shares

BANDUNG (JP): PT Telkom president A.A. Nasution dismissed on Wednesday media reports claiming that American financier George Soros was planning to buy shares in the state-owned telecommunications company.

"They (Soros' financial team) didn't say a single word about investing or anything like that," Nasution said on the sidelines of a human resources management seminar held here.

Nasution confirmed that he and finance director Hari Supangkat met with Soros' financial team on Feb. 2 at the Hyatt Hotel in Jakarta.

He said they only discussed data on Telkom.

"They (Soros' financial team) had a complete set of data (on Telkom). They only wanted to confirm the validity of the data directly with the president of the company," he said.

During the one-and-a-half-hour meeting, Nasution said the team asked two important questions.

The first question pertained to the measures taken by Telkom to survive the economic crisis, which saw many Indonesian companies go under, Nasution recalled.

The second question was concerning a statement by Nasution in December 1998 that Telkom would not lay off any employees amid the crisis.

Nasution said he answered both questions honestly.

He told Soros' team that Telkom survived the crisis thanks to a good strategy and efficiency programs.

"With regard to the second question, I told them all 38,000 employees of Telkom were always ready to die for the company," Nasution said.

Nasution added that there was nothing special about the meeting.

"They only wanted to meet with Telkom's board of directors in private. That's all."

Soros' investment firm Quantum Fund has reportedly established a partnership with local securities house PT Bhakti Investama to look for investment opportunities in the country.

The partnership, together with some unidentified foreign investors, reportedly plans to acquire a majority stake in ailing cigarettemaker PT Bentoel Prima through trading firm PT Transindo Multi Prima. (25/udi)