Govt offering green shoe stake in BNI to investors

Jakarta,  (ANTARA News) - The Ministry of State Enterprises (BUMN) is offering to investors a 4.14 percent stake or about 477.89 million green shoe shares in Bank BNI in an effort to meet its need for privatization funds to be paid to the government. 

"If there is a strategic investor who is interested in it, it can acquire 4.14 percent of BNI`s green shoe stake," BUMN Minister Sofyan Djalil said here on Friday. 

He said that his office was seeking a strategic partner because the conditions of the stock exchange were not supportive while BUMN had the obligation to contribute Rp1 trillion to the 2009 state budget. 

The minister said that uncertain conditions in the stock exchange had caused a number of BUMNs to face problems in carrying out their plans to issue initial public offering (IPO) this year. 

"We prefer the option on how to sell green shoe shares to strategic investors through a private placement system," the minister said. 

He said that the green shoe stake was additional share offering by underwriters issued when they conducted a public offering. It had the aim to reduce share price volatility after registration in the stock exchange. 

In July 2007, Bank BNI called for a secondary public offering with a right issue of 1.99 billion shares, of which the government sales reached 1.50 billion shares, including 473.89 million green shoe shares. 

The government is willing to sell its green shoe shares at BNI with a price similar to that during the secondary offering, namely Rp2,050 per share. 

"It should be sold at that price. It may not less than it. If there is a strategic investor, we will sell it," the minister said. 

Sofyan Djalil did not mention a deadline when the green shoe shares had to be sold. 

"In principle, it is open to any party and it is not bound to a deadline because it already gained approval from the privatization committee," he said.