Three firms join Gresik bidding

JAKARTA (JP): Three foreign cement companies will take part in the second bidding stage to purchase part of the government's 65 percent stake in publicly listed PT Semen Gresik, an official said yesterday.

Sofyan A. Djalil, a deputy of State Minister for the Empowerment of State Enterprises Tanri Abeng, identified the firms as Germany's Heilderberger Zement AG, Switzerland's Holderbank and France's Laferge Asia Pacific.

He added that seven companies were invited to participate but only the three companies expressed interest.

The government announced early this month that Mexico's Cemex SA de CV won the first bidding stage by offering US$287 million for a 35 percent stake in the publicly listed cement maker.

The offering price of $1.38 per share was a 127 percent premium on Gresik's closing price of Rp 9,150 on the Jakarta Stock Exchange early this month.

Although Cemex won the first stage of the tender, other bidders will be allowed to make a second offer, Sofyan said earlier this month.

But if no other bidders better Cemex's bid within 30 days from June 6, Cemex will be the winner, he said. He added that the company would also be given the opportunity to increase its offer to top any new bids.

He said that if Cemex won the deal it would seek to buy another 16 percent stake in Gresik's shares through a tender offer at a price of $1.38 per share on the local bourse.

The Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) is currently investigating insider trading allegations in share transactions of Gresik between May and June. Several top officials from the company's financial advisers are suspected of benefiting from inside information about the prospect of a foreign strategic investor buying into the company.

Gresik is the first state-owned company to be divested in the government's 1998/1999 target of privatizing 12 of the firms to raise Rp 15 trillion ($1 billion) to help finance the cash- strapped state budget. (rei)