Investors Walking Away from Bakrie Stocks

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Analysts said investors are "walking away" from Bakrie Group's shares. Lucky Bayu Purnomo, senior analyst at LBP Enterprise, said investors have been avoiding the shares of PT Bumi Resources Tbk (BUMI)—the Bakrie-owned coal mining company—since two years ago.

In yesterday's trade, BUMI dropped to Rp78 per share, the lowest in 11 years. Throughout this year, BUMI has plummeted by 74 percent compared to its year-opener price of Rp300 per share in January.

"It is apparent that BUMI's price is completely unable to represent its performances," he told Tempo yesterday.

Universal Broker Indonesia analyst Satrio Utomo said BUMI's minority shareholders, who are mostly public shareholders, believe that the majority have been unfaithful since 2007-2008. Their assumptions, Satrio said, is based on BUMI's poor debt management and expansion programs.

"Now their management is demanding minority shareholders' loyalty whereas in fact it has always been the majority who are disloyal," Satrio said.

On Tuesday, Standard & Poor's cut BUMI's debt rating from selective default to default. S&P analyst Vishal Kulkarni said the cut was made because BUMI does not seem to have good faith in settling its debt.

In November, three of BUMI's Singapore-based subsidiaries Bumi Capital Pte Ltd, Bumi Investment Pte Ltd, and Enercoal Resources Pte Ltd got a six-month debt settlement extension from the Singapore Court.

The three companies have a total debt of Rp16.7 trillion. Meanwhile, BUMI's total liability reached US$7 billion as of June 2014, and the company has a negative equity of US$242.5 million.

As of the end of this year's first half, the total debt owed by companies under the Bakrie Group listed in the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) amounted to some Rp90 trillion.

TRI ARTINING PUTRI | FAIZ NASHRILLAH | M AZHAR