Bakrie & Brothers to buy stakes in 3 firms for $5.5b

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Investment company PT Bakrie and Brothers is set to raise Rp 51.3 trillion (some US$5.5 billion) to purchase stakes in three large companies.

Bakrie president director Bobby Gafur Umar said the company would buy 35 percent stake in the country's biggest coal exporter PT Bumi Resources, and 40 percent each in PT Energi Mega Persada (EMP) and PT Bakrieland Development.

The company will spend Rp 36.9 trillion to buy Bumi shares at Rp 5,432 per share, Rp 7.2 trillion for EMP at Rp 1,249 per share and Rp 4.3 trillion for Bakrieland at Rp 556 per share, Bobby said.

To finance the acquisition, Bobby said, the company would first combine two of its existing shares into one, and then raise Rp 40.1 trillion through a rights issue. For the remainder of the fund, the company will sell warrants worth Rp 2.9 trillion and borrow Rp 8.3 trillion.

The shares of the three companies will be bought from the family of Aburizal Bakrie, Indonesia's welfare minister, which also owns 28 percent of Bakrie and Brothers.

"The family has agreed to the sale," Bobby said at a media conference Friday.

"With the right issue we will have strategic investment in five rapidly growing listed companies."

Bakrie and Brothers already controls, among others, PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations and PT Bakrie Telecom.

"All target acquisitions are high-growth companies in key strategic industries," said Bobby.

"When combining its existing businesses with the new acquisitions Bakrie & Brothers will have a strong strategic portfolio of the hottest sectors in Indonesia."

Bumi stock rose fivefold in Jakarta the past year and Energi Mega more than doubled, according to Bloomberg data, driven by surging coal and energy prices.

Yuanita Rohali, the company's finance director, said the stand-by buyers for the rights issue would be Bakrie Capital Indonesia, Danatama Makmur and Singapore Credit Suisse.

The company hopes to complete the rights issue in April.

On warrant sales, Yuanita said investors would be offered one warrant for every 17 rights shares at Rp 310.

According to Yuanita, the warrants' trading period will run from April this year to March 2011, while its exercise period will run from October this year to April 2011.

Bakrie & Brothers has a market capitalization of Rp 7.5 trillion, with assets in infrastructure projects reaching Rp 2.2 trillion, plantations Rp 5.26 trillion and telecommunications Rp 4.27 trillion. (ndr)