PLN says it received request from ministry to buy Inalum shares

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Mon, 02/21/2011 1:42 PM | Business

A director of state electricity company PT PLN says that the company has received instructions from the government to purchase a stake in aluminium producer PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum).

A contract signed in 1976 and due to end in 2013 gave a consortium of Japanese companies, Nippon Asahan Aluminium Co Ltd (NAA), a 58.8 percent stake in Inalum and the remainder to the Indonesian government.

Once the current contract with NAA expires, the government plans to take over Inalum, rather than renew its contract.

PLN received a letter from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry requesting that it acquire the stake, PLN business and risk management director Murtaqi Syamsuddin said Monday, as reported by kontan.co.id.

Previously, state mining company PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (ANTM) president director Alwin Syah Loebis had said his company was ready to purchase the stake.

However, ANTM’s company secretary Bimo Budi Satrio declined to comment on the option of a joint venture with PLN.

“We are still waiting for [orders from] government,” he said.

The government needs around US$700 million to purchase the NAA stake.

Asian shares mixed after China central bank move

The Associated Press, Tokyo, Japan | Mon, 01/17/2011 9:58 AM | Business

Asian shares were mixed Monday as investors digested the latest move by China to control interest rates.

China's central bank on Friday raised the amount of money banks must keep on reserve for the seventh time in a year. It ordered state-owned banks to set asde an additional 0.5 percent of deposits as reserves, effective Jan. 20.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index slipped 0.3 percent to 24,214.97, the Shanghai Composite index lost 1.3 percent to 2,753.79, and Australia's S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.5 percent to 4,779.20.

Benchmarks in New Zealand and Taiwan also retreated Meanwhile, Japan's Nikkei 225 stock average rose 0.4 percent to 10,536.74 as banks benefited from a strong showing by U.S. financials before the weekend. Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc., Japan's biggest bank, rose 0.7 percent.

The optimism was triggered by JPMorgan Chase & Co., which reported that its income soared 47 percent in the fourth quarter. The bank set aside less money to cover bad loans and said it expected to get permission from the Federal Reserve to raise its dividend.

South Korea's Kospi added 0.2 perent to 2,111.27 on strength in high-tech shares.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 55.48 points, or 0.5 percent, to 11,787.38. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 9.48, or 0.7 percent, to 1,293.24.

The Nasdaq rose 20.01, or 0.7 percent, to 2,755.30. U.S. financial markets will be cosed Monday to observe the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. In currencies, the dollar rose to 82.90 yen from 82.80 yen late Friday.

The euro stood at $1.3344 from $1.3385. Benchmark oil for February delivery fell 9 cents $91.45 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract rose 14 cents to settle at $91.54 a barrel Friday.

Mandiri prices rights shares at Rp 4,000-6,150

The Jakarta Post | Tue, 12/28/2010 12:31 PM | Business

Bank Mandiri, Indonesia’s biggest lender by assets, has set a price for its rights issue, valuing its shares at between Rp 4,000 and Rp 6,150, a recent statement shows.

In a short prospectus released Tuesday, the state-owned lender said it would offer 2.34 billion new shares at the beginning of February next year, valuing the rights offer at between Rp 9.3 and Rp 14.4 trillion — the biggest in Indonesia’s stock market history.

“Funds obtained from the rights offer proceeds will be fully used to strengthen the company's capitalization structure, which will be used to expand the company’s business and loan growth,” Mandiri said in the statement.

State-owned Mandiri Sekuritas and Danareksa Sekuritas have been appointed as standby buyers for the shares.

For each 8,985 existing Mandiri shares held on Feb. 10, shareholders will have rights to buy 1,000 new shares offered in the rights issue.

Mandiri will begin offering the shares in a bookbuilding process targeting local and foreign investors in the second week of January, travelling to Singapore, Hong Kong, the US and the UK, Mandiri chief financial officer Pahala Mansury said previously. (est)