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group of Indonesian businessmen have taken over a 35 percent stake in the Indonesian division of Hong Kong-based telecommunications company Hutchison from Thai company Charoen Pokphand.

Bhuwan Kulshreshtha, commercial head with PT Hutchison CP Telecommunications (HCPT), announced in Jakarta on Friday a major change in the company’s share ownership following the acquisition of the Thai company’s shares.

HCPT, whose mobile operator service in the country is branded 3, was previously 60 percent owned by Hutchison Whampoa Limited via its subsidiary, Hutchison Asia Telecommunications, and 40 percent by Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand.

“The acquisition has resulted in the exit of CP [Charoen Pokphand] from the company and the entry of Pak Thohir’s [Garibaldi Thohir] investment group,” Kulshreshtha said.

The new composition of the company’s share ownership now comprised 65 percent by Hutchison Whampoa and 35 percent by a group headed by Garibaldi, according to Kulshreshtha. Following the change, the company’s name will be PT Hutchison 3 Indonesia, starting this month.

Garibaldi, whose nickname is Boy, is Indonesia’s 28th richest person, according to Forbes magazine. He is currently president director of Jakarta-listed coal miner PT Adaro Energy and another listed company, PT Surya Esa Perkasa, as well as a commissioner with PT WOM Finance.

Hutchison gave no details of the investment group headed by Garibaldi that purchased the stake in the company, and Garibaldi did not respond to The Jakarta Post’s phone and text messages.

A source familiar with the deal said that Garibaldi invested in Hutchison along with a number of other businessmen, including Patrick Walujo, who controls private equity firm Northstar Pacific.

Patrick did not deny his investment in Hutchison when the Post contacted him by phone on Friday.

With Northstar, Patrick has performed several business expansions. Northstar Equity Partners III Ltd., via its subsidiary, Advance Wealth Finance Ltd., recently purchased a 49 percent stake in Jakarta-listed securities company PT Trimegah Securities.

Another of Equity Partners’ subsidiaries, Clover Universal Enterprise, is the standby buyer for 6.85 billion shares, or around 92 percent of the total shares, in the rights issue of publicly listed company PT Centrin Online, which plans to use the funds raised to purchase a 100 percent stake in PT Retower Asia.

As of the end of October last year, Retower operated 41 telecommunication towers, with clients including PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia and its subsidiary, PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel); PT XL Axiata; PT Bakrie Telecom; and Hutchison 3 Indonesia.

Hutchison 3 Indonesia holds a 10 percent share of the country’s telecommunications operator market with around 21 million subscribers. Around 50 percent of the company’s revenue comes from data services.

The company previously said that it aimed to increase its market share to 13 percent this year.

It is said that Indonesia’s telecommunications industry has reached saturation point, with the number of SIM card sales totaling more than the country’s 240 million population. The top operators, namely Telkomsel, XL Axiata and PT Indosat, together hold around 70 percent market share.