PTBA planning to join Northstar consortium

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Minister for State Enterprises Sofyan Djalil said state-owned coal mining firm PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) was planning to join Northstar Pacific consortium which would buy 35 stake in PT Bumi Resources (BUMI). 

"PTBA has told us its plan to join it. If there are others who will join it too, we would welcome them," the minister said here on Tuesday. 

Northstar is an investment company which is part of the Texas Pacific Group of the United States. It has won the purchase offer of 35 state in BUMI worth US$1.3 billion. Northstar defeated other contenders San Miguel of the Philippines and Tata Group of India. 

Besides PTBA, two other state-owned enterprises (SoE), namely PT Antam and PT Timah once expressed interest to purchase BUMI, failed to reach a deal due to low price. 

According to Djalil, the government is in principle encouraging SoEs to take part in the purchase of state with BUMI. 

"After the due diligence carried out on BUMI and it showed `clear and clear` and its price is promising then would not object to it," he said. 

He said that BUMI was a good company and the due diligence indicated a good result, so that there would be no problem if a SoE was interested in it. 

But the minister admitted he was not informed of the ability of the company to take part in the consortium, especially with regard to its fund and the portion of the shares it would buy. 

As reported Sunday, Northstar is teaming up with state companies for the buyout. 

"We are now evaluating what proportion we have in the consortium, but the deal the consortium and Bakrie & brothers has been completed, PTBA president director Sukrisno was quoted as saying. 

Bakri & Brothers, the flagship of the wealthy and politically wired Bakrie family announced over the weekend that Northstar Pacific had agreed to pay US$1.3 billion for the Bakrie`s 35 percent stake in publicly listed BUMI, the world`s largest thermal coal exporter, to help its debts.