PT Bakrie & Brothers announced Friday night that it had reached an agreement with Northstar Pacific Partners Ltd. to form a joint venture company that would take over Bakrie's collateralized assets currently in the custody of Oddickson Finance.

Under the deal, Northstar -- a local unit of U.S.-based Texas Pacific Group (TPG) -- will buy out the debt that Bakrie owes to Oddickson, which currently stands at US$575 million, Bakrie president director Nalinkant A. Rathod said.

No information was disclosed on the share ownership of the two firms in the joint venture company.

"We have completed a strategic partnership with Northstar. The most important thing about the partnership is the buyout of Odickson Finance's debt," Nalinkant said.

Bakrie's debt to Odickson formerly stood at $1.08 billion, which is a combined value of stakes in the world's largest thermal coal exporter Bumi Resources, oil and gas producer Energi Mega Persada and property developer Bakrieland.

However, Nalinkant said that the value of the debt had gone down to $575 million partly due to "currency gains" and repurchasing agreement (repo) settlements.

He further said that after the buyout plan Bakrie would have a remaining debt of about $200 million to other firms that would be resolved by the end of the year. (and)

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