TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Freeport's share divestment will run in October as scheduled: Govt
On schedule: The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has said it is optimistic that the divestment of 10
Change Size
On schedule: The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has said it is optimistic that the divestment of 10.64 percent of copper and gold miner Freeport Indonesiaâs shares will still run in October as scheduled. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja) (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
O
span class="inline inline-center">On schedule: The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has said it is optimistic that the divestment of 10.64 percent of copper and gold miner Freeport Indonesia's shares will still run in October as scheduled. (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry is optimistic that the divestment of shares by copper and gold miner PT Freeport Indonesia can be implemented before Oct. 14 as scheduled despite the regulation (Permen) on share divestment of foreign mining companies having not yet been completed.
Currently, the Indonesian government owns only 9.36 percent of Freeport's shares. To be in step with government regulations, Freeport must have divested to the government a further 10.64 percent of its shares by Oct. 14, 2015, at the latest, giving the government 20 percent ownership. The company has to divest an additional 10 percent of its shares to the government by October 2019.
The ministry's secretary general Teguh Pamudji said that although the government would revise the regulation, the revision would not change Freeport's obligation to divest its shares. He refused to give details about the portion of shares Freeport would have to divest.
'The divestment figure will be determined during a meeting scheduled to be held at the Coordinating Economic Ministry office on Monday. This is because the Permen on divestment must be completed first. One thing for sure is that in October, Freeport's share divestment will still happen,' said Teguh as quoted by kontan.co.id.
Teguh further said that the government had also not yet determined which state-owned enterprise (SOE) would be involved in Freeport's share divestment. He said the ministry was still discussing the matter.
Freeport Indonesia's spokesperson Riza Pratama refused to comment on the matter. 'The divestment mechanism is still being discussed,' he said.
No IPO
Commenting on the possibility that Freeport would sell shares through an initial public offering (IPO), the ministry's director of mineral exploration & management, Mohammad Hidayat, said an IPO had never been an option on the table.
'We should not let foreign entities control Freeport's share ownership again. This is what we are currently regulating for with a hope that it is a national company that will own [Freeport's] shares,' he said on Sunday.
Hidayat said Freeport's share divestment should not miss its deadlines because the government's was very eager for the divested shares to be owned by a state-owned enterprise.
In response, state-owned mining company Antam corporate secretary Tri Hartono said that, as a SOE, Antam was waiting for the government's order to take control of Freeport Indonesia's divested shares. 'We must be ready,' he said. (ags/ebf)
