Bakrie opens talks on Rothschild’s fate

Top decision-makers in the Bakrie Group, the key shareholder of London-listed Bumi Plc, are scheduled to meet the company’s independent directors in Jakarta this week to negotiate a plan for a shake-up in the company’s management, including the removal of Nathaniel Rothschild as co-chairman.

“We are waiting for further developments from talks with Rothschild’s side, which will be carried out tomorrow [today]. The point is we want a board that can contribute to sustainable growth to increase the value for shareholders,” Bobby Gafur Umar, president director of PT Bakrie and Brothers (BNBR), the holding company of Bakrie family’s businesses, said in a text message sent to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

BNBR, along with Bakrie-related Long Haul Holding and PT Borneo Lumbung Energy & Metal (BORN), indirectly holds a 47.6 percent stake in Bumi Plc.

According to Bumi’s website, six people serve as the company’s independent directors and one person as a senior independent director, who also serves as deputy chairman.

Last week, Chris Fong, a Bakrie Group spokesman, said the conglomeration may reconsider the management shake-up should the independent directors offer a solution that “makes sense”.

“We are talking to Nat and have been advised that the independent directors will deliver a solution
to us in Jakarta next week. If it’s a solution that makes sense then we won’t resist,” Fong said in an emailed statement, as quoted by Bloomberg.

Bumi said on Feb. 3 that a shareholder, Borneo Bumi Energi & Metal Ltd — a special vehicle established recently after BORN purchased stakes in Bumi — called a meeting to seek the removal of co-chairman Rothschild and chief executive officer Ari Hudaya.

Ties with Rothschild were weakened in November when he made public a letter to CEO Hudaya calling for a “radical cleaning up” of the world’s biggest thermal coal producer Bumi Resources, in which Bumi Plc owns a 29 percent stake.

Borneo Bumi Energi is seeking to appoint Indra Bakrie and former BORN president director Samin Tan as chairmen of Bumi. Borneo also proposed to oust fellow founder James Campbell, a former Anglo American Plc (AAL) executive, chief financial officer Andrew Beckham as well as directors Badung Tariono and Amir Sambodo.

“We want a board that is 100 percent focused on the asset,” Fong said. “The independent director’s role is very important and we have the highest respect for them and the UK governance standards they
protect.”

Fong also said circumstances had been changing since the general meeting was called, and the Bakrie Group was unaware that Rothschild had resigned from another board to focus more on Bumi.

Bumi shares have fallen 15 percent since news of the meeting broke. The shares rose 1.2 percent in London on Friday. Bumi Resources declined 3 percent in Friday trading at the Indonesia Stock Exchange.