The bid competition for the stake of local oil and gas service company PT Elnusa, closely followed by the media, is nearing completion as a consortium of investment firms comprising Saratoga Capital and Northstar Pacific Partners was on Thursday named the preferred bidder.
PT Tridaya Esta has picked Saratoga-Northstar group out of three bidders, to purchase its 37.15 percent stake in Elnusa, according to the arranger, Bahana Securities.
Bahana said in a statement that the consortium was the "preferable bidder" compared to the other two (namely state-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina and a consortium led by local management holding company Ciptadana Capital).
Pertamina currently owns 41.67 percent stake in Elnusa
"Tridaya Esta will follow up this with a negotiation, which is expected to be completed within eight to ten weeks," read the statement sent to The Jakarta Post.
However, there is no disclosure about the value of the deals.
Bahana director for investment banking Eko Yuliantoro, who is in charge in the bidding process, and Saratoga managing director Sandiaga S. Uno declined to comment.
A lawyer for Tridaya Esta Sudiotomo Kartohadiprodjo Noorcahyo revealed that actually between Saratoga-Northstar consortium and Tridaya Esta there was no agreement yet regarding the bidding value, pending a further negotiation between the two parties
"The price will depend on the terms and conditions they *Sartoga-Northstar* request in the deal," Sudiotomo said.
He, however, refused to elaborate the points of the requirements.
Sources in the Jakarta stock market said that Saratoga-Northstar consortium had bid for the stake at a price of Rp 450 (4.4 US cents) a share, meanwhile Ciptadana had bid at Rp 315 a share.
Pertamina actually planned to offer the stake at a price between Rp 451 and RP 455 a share, however this was apparently blocked by the government, who disagreed with Pertamina paying a premium price.
Saratoga-Northstar had since the beginning shown confidence in winning the bid.
On Tuesday, Sandiaga said he was upbeat his consortium would win the tender as the consortium had offered an "attractive price at a premium level", but refused to mention the figure.
Sandiaga had also said that the consortium would use internal cash for the payment, saying that it had enough reserves.
Saratoga Capital is an investment company founded in 1998 by Edwin Soeryadjaya and Sandiaga S. Uno. The firm offers investment advice in mining, telecommunications, forestry and other sectors.
Set up in 2003 Northstar is the Indonesian arm of Texas Pacific Group, founded by US billionaire David Bonderman, which currently has a stake in the Bakrie and Brothers Group.
Local businessman Patrick Walujo is Northstar's co-founder and co-managing director.
The consortium has yet to determine the participating interest of each company in the partnership.
But Sandiaga had pledged that the consortium would turn Elnusa into a world-class player in oil and gas services should it win the stake.
"We will make *Elnusa* a leading oil and gas service provider in Asia and we will tap other strategic markets like the Middle East and North Africa," Sandiaga said earlier this week.
Currently, Elnusa offers services to oil and gas firms operating in Indonesia and neighboring countries like Vietnam and Brunei Darussalam.
Elnusa booked a first-quarter net profit of Rp 40.1 billion (US$3.8 million) in 2009 - a huge surge from the Rp 10.19 billion in losses it recorded in the same period last year.
The significant jump in net profit is due mostly to a huge number of contracts secured by the company in the first three months of this year, which led to a 51 percent jump in the company's revenue to Rp 698.17 billion as of March 2009.
