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Bosowa aims to acquire Bloomberg TV Indonesia

Diversified conglomerate Bosowa Corporation plans to acquire the majority stake in business-focused TV station Bloomberg TV Indonesia to expand its influence in the media industry

Khoirul Amin (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Tue, December 30, 2014

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Bosowa aims to acquire Bloomberg TV Indonesia

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iversified conglomerate Bosowa Corporation plans to acquire the majority stake in business-focused TV station Bloomberg TV Indonesia to expand its influence in the media industry.

Bosowa CEO Erwin Aksa, who is the nephew of Vice President Jusuf Kalla, said on Monday that his firm planned to acquire a 55 percent stake in the TV station without detailing how much money would be allocated for the acquisition.

'€œWe can'€™t provide details of the acquisition value yet but we will announce it in the near future,'€ he said, adding that Bosowa '€” which has assets in a variety of sectors from infrastructure to finance and has a strong foothold in the eastern part of Indonesia '€” would use its internal cash to finance the acquisition.

Bloomberg TV Indonesia, which is operated under holding company PT Idea Karya Indonesia, is currently owned by tycoons Sandiaga S. Uno and Rosan Roeslani, as well as the TV station'€™s CEO, Aditya Chandra Wardhana.

Sandiaga and Rosan have been friends since their time at senior high school. The two jointly established investment and financial advisor PT Recapital Advisors.

Sandiaga currently holds a position as the president director of the investment company PT Saratoga Investama Sedaya, which owns a number of companies, including coal miner PT Adaro Energy, telecommunications tower operator PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure and power company PT Medco Power Indonesia.

Idea Karya Indonesia CEO Ziva Narendra Arifin said that the acquisition of Bloomberg TV Indonesia would dilute current shareholders'€™ stake in the TV station.

He declined to comment on whose shares would be diluted, but said that Rosan and Aditya were currently the largest shareholders of the TV station.

Bloomberg TV Indonesia, which started operating in the country last year, broadcast news with a variety of topics, mostly related to business. The TV station '€” despite being a franchise of US-based Bloomberg News '€” offers 80 percent Indonesian content to viewers in Indonesia.

Bosowa'€™s Erwin said that his firm wanted to acquire Bloomberg TV because of the quality of its content as well as promising growth in the media industry.

In the media business, Bosowa currently operates local TV station Celebes TV and manages local printed media outlets in partnership with media giant Kompas Gramedia Group.

An analyst with Woori Korindo Securities, Reza Priyambada, said that the media industry was forecast to grow between 15 and 17 percent this year and would continue to grow in the future.

Bosowa, which is based in Makassar, South Sulawesi, is currently carrying out aggressive business expansion projects as a part of its bigger plan to become one of most diversified companies in the country next year, dubbed the '€œtake off'€ phase.

The firm, which currently has 10 business units and 43 subsidiaries, has previously stated that it will also acquire a 100 percent stake in airline company PT Sky Aviation, which halted operations in March.

Bosowa has also planned to invest around Rp 9.9 trillion (US$796.8 million) to expand its cement, power plant and hotel businesses.

Bosowa was found in the 1970s by Aksa Mahmud, who married Kalla'€™s younger sister Ramlah Kalla two years after starting his business empire from scratch.

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