Six Foreign Investors Competing for KPC and Arutmin

Wednesday, 17 January, 2007 | 13:54 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Six international investors are competing to buy shares in PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) and PT Arutmin belonging to PT Bumi Resources Tbk.

The divestment process is expected to be completed this month.

Eddie J. Soebari, Director of Finance at Bumi Resources, said six potential investors are undergoing fit and proper testing as well as visiting the mining locations of KPC and Arutmin.

“In addition, they are also accessing the data room,” he told Tempo yesterday (01/16) in Jakarta.

Previously, Bumi had almost offered 96 percent of KPC shares and 100 percent of Arutmin shares to PT Borneo Lumbung Energi—an affiliate of PT Renaissance Capital—in the middle of last year.

However, the US$3.2 billion transaction failed at the final moment.

More recently, Bumi has begun the divestment process of 30 percent of the shares of each of its two subsidiaries.

According to Eddie, initially, 13 companies were interested to KPC and Arutmin.

After the first selection phase was held last month, six investors passed through to the due diligence phase.

Eddie stated only that they came from abroad and not prepared to reveal their identities.

“I could only say that they are from Asia and Europe,” he said.

Eddie was also not prepared to confirm whether or not previously interested companies were on the list.

As previously reported, foreign investors interested in purchasing the shares of these two giant coal mining companies included CVRD (Brazil), BHP Billiton (Australia), Glencore International AG (Ireland) and Marubeni (Japan).

Eddie only mentioned that the six companies had mining backgrounds: they have mining operations or trade companies that deal with mining products.

The reason for Bumi's divestment of the KPC and Arutmin shares was to increase the company's value.

YURA SYAHRUL | MUCHTAR WIJAYA (PDAT)