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Freeport's share divestment starts Oct. 14
(Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said that giant gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia would be able to offer its divestment shares starting from Oct
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(Antara/Muhammad Adimaja) (Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
(Antara/Muhammad Adimaja)
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry said that giant gold and copper miner PT Freeport Indonesia would be able to offer its divestment shares starting from Oct. 14.
"After receiving the offer, the government will have 90 days to negotiate with Freeport, regarding whether the price is reasonable or not," said the ministry's director general for minerals and coal, Bambang Gatot Ariyono, on Thursday as quoted by tempo.co.
According to Bambang, after evaluating the price, the ministry would hand over the divestment technicalities to the Finance Ministry. The government, through the Finance Ministry, would later decide whether to buy the shares or not. If the government is not interested, the shares will be offered to state-owned enterprises (BUMN) and provincial administration-owned enterprises (BUMD).
The divestment scheme will be included in the Ministerial regulation after the issuance of the revised Government Regulation (PP) No. 77/2014 on implementation of minerals and coal mining business activities. Based on the policy, Freeport is obliged to divest up to 30 percent of its shares since the company's activities include underground mining.
Currently, the Indonesian government owns only 9.36 percent of Freeport's shares.
As for the scheme of releasing Freeport's shares on the stock market, it is not yet possible since it has not been arranged in the regulation.
"The current regulation is to release the shares to BUMN, BUMD or private entities," said Bambang.
Previously, Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) president director Tito Sulistio called on foreign entities that were involved in Indonesia's natural resources to be listed in the stock exchange.
"Even though [they are] foreigners, they exploit Indonesia's natural resources. Please be listed [in the IDX] for [the sake of] all of us," said Tito.
According to Tito, IDX was currently surveying 16 foreign entities, which included Freeport, Wilmar and Newmont.
He urged the entities to divest their shares in IDX so that Indonesia could at least gain benefits through taxes and transactions in the stock exchange.
"The impact is for the market's index and capitalization," said Tito. (ags/kes)(++++)
