T

he minority shareholders of Bumi Plc., including Nathaniel Rothschild, will try to maintain the company’s existence and listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) by blocking the Bakrie Group’s plans to take over one of its main assets, Jakarta-listed PT Berau Coal Energy, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Six existing minority shareholders holding combined voting rights of around 50 percent have agreed to keep Berau in Bumi Plc., the source said. The shareholders are co-founder Rothschild, Schroder Investment Management Ltd., Standard Life Investments, the Abu Dhabi Investment Council (ADIC), Artemis Investment Management LLP and Taube Hodson Stonex Partners LLP.

“[The shareholders] only need 25 percent to block the Bakrie deal, as it is a class 1 transaction under UK law,” the source said.

According to Bumi Plc.’s annual report from 2011, the largest voting rights holder is PT Borneo Lumbung Energi & Metal, with 29.99 percent, followed by PT Bukit Mutiara with 13.11 percent, Rothschild with 11.92 percent, BlackRock Inc. with 6.36 percent, ADIC with 4.15 percent, Schroder with 3.99 percent and Taube Hodson with 3.16 percent. No details were available for the stakes held by Standard Life or Artemis.

Bumi Plc., through an appointed advisor, is reviewing the Bakrie Group’s three-stage proposal submitted in October to swap its ownership and take over the company’s main assets, PT Bumi Resources and Berau, the two main players in Indonesia’s coal industry.

The source said that the minority shareholders were not interested in keeping Bumi Plc.’s shares in debt-ridden PT Bumi Resources, preferring to retain Berau instead.

Following the offer, Rothschild — whose relationship with the Bakrie Group has deteriorated since they agreed in 2010 to develop Bumi Plc. — submitted an alternative proposal to the board, declining to reveal the contents.

Rothschild said that he wanted to maintain Bumi Plc.’s premium listing on the LSE and to keep Berau.

“Shareholders want to maintain Bumi Plc.’s listing and ownership of Berau without any further involvement of Bakrie, [Rosan] Roeslani and especially [Samin] Tan,” Rothschild said in an email to The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Rosan is currently one of Bumi Plc’s non-executive directors and the chairman of PT Recapital Advisors, which through Bukit Mutiara holds a 10 percent stake in Bumi Plc. He said recently that his Recapital would likely lose its voting rights if the UK takeover panel found that it was associated with the Bakrie Group and Borneo.

Samin Tan has been serving as Bumi Plc.’s chairman since March, after Borneo purchased half of a 47.6 percent stake in Bumi Plc. from the Bakrie Group for US$1 billion. Instead of holding the ownership separately, the Bakrie Group and Borneo formed two special purposes vehicles to retain their ownership in Bumi Plc.

Bakrie Group senior vice president Christopher K. Fong said that while the group didn’t want to speculate on how shareholders would vote, he remained positive about the results.

“We expect PT Bumi Resources will remain a part of Bakrie. If a competitive bid for Berau Coal is submitted, then we would imagine it would need to be a substantial offer to meet the expectations of all shareholders. Our intention is for Indonesian control over these assets. We hope that this expectation is realized,” Fong said.