DANAREKSA MAY BUY STAKE IN PT SEMEN GRESIK

Danareksa may buy stake in PT Semen Gresik

Nani Afrida , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 04/13/2010 9:04 AM | Business

The State-Owned Enterprises Minister, Mustafa Abubakar, revealed Monday that the government will appoint state investment company PT Danareksa to buy the Rajawali Group’s remaining 1.25 percent stake in PT Semen Gresik.

“Danareksa has submitted a proposal on the plan. I think it has the financial capacity to buy Semen Gresik’s shares.

They have the money to carry out the transaction,” Mustafa said in Jakarta on Monday.

According to Mustafa, Danareksa may cooperate with state enterprises to buy the stake, which is worth Rp 516 billion (US$57.2 million). “We will meet with the finance minister [Sri Mulyani Indrawati] to ask for her approval,” he said.

The minister had previously announced that either Danareksa or state asset management company PT PPA would acquire the stake because it was quite prospective.

At that time, PPA said it would be ready to acquire Rajawali’s 1.25 percent stake (73.8 million shares) in Semen Gresik. However, the minister said that so far only Danareksa had discussed the plan and seemed ready to carry out the deal.

Danareksa corporate secretary Bondan Pristiwandana confirmed the planned acquisition, saying the company had used the company’s internal funds to buy the stake.

Rajawali Group offered the government its remaining 1.25 percent stake in Semen Gresik after it sold 23.7 percent of it to three investors through JP Morgan, which acted as the underwriter.

The company did not name the buyers but they bought 1.35 billion shares (22.84 percent), 45 million shares (0.76 percent) and 3 million shares (0.05 percent), respectively, at Rp 7,000 per share.

Rajawali, controlled by Peter Sondakh, is estimated to book US$1.1 billion from the sale. The sale is the largest equity transaction in Indonesia since June 2008, when coal miner PT Adaro Energy raised US$1.3 billion during an initial public offering.

Rajawali became a shareholder in in the company after it bought a 24.90 percent stake in Gresik from Mexican cement maker Cemex SAB in July 2006 for US$336.7 million.

The government has a 51 percent stake in the company with the remainder owned by the public.

Rajawali became a major shareholder in Gresik after it bought a 24.9 percent stake in Gresik from Mexican cement maker Cemex SAB (CX) in July 2006 for $336.7 million.