TEMPO.CO, Jakarta – The government is asking state-owned enterprises to acquire the remaining seven percent of copper and gold producer PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara's (NNT) divested stake. That way, said Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Sudirman Said, the acquisition could be turned into something profitable.
The Indonesian government regulation no.23/2010 on Mineral and Coal Mining Activities arranged that foreign owned companies must divest 51 percent of its stake to locals.
From 2006 to 2009, has NNT sold 24 percent of its interest to local company Multi Daerah Bersaing and 20 percent to PT Pukuafu Indah, making a total of 44 percent. The remaining 7 percent was scheduled to be divested in 2010.
On May 6, 2011, Nusa Tenggara Partnership BV, the foreign shareholder of NNT, initiated the sale of a seven-percent divestiture shares to the government through the Government Investment Center (Pusat Investasi Pemerintah PIP) for US$246.8 million. The sales and purchase agreement (SPA) was supposed to have been finalized on July 26, 2013, in accordance to the contract signed by NNT and PIP.
The remaining seven-percent obligatory divestment continues to be put on hold because the House of Representatives did not approve it. The case was even taken to the Constitutional Court.
NNT president director Martiono Hadianto said there has been no official response from the government on the shares purchase. "There are no official letters, or any kind of discussion," he said after meeting with the Energy Ministry's directorate general of mineral and coal last Thursday.
NNT's current shareholders are Nusa Tenggara Partnership (56 percent), Multi Daerah Bersaing (24 percent), Pukuafu Indah (17.8 percent), and PT Indonesia Masbaga (2,2 percent).
AYU PRIMA SANDI | ANDI IBNU | ANGGA SUKMA | RIRIE RANGGASARI
