Share Price Offered by Freeport too High: Minister

Jakarta (Antara Bali) - State Enterprises Minister (BUMN) Rini Soemarno said the price of shares offered by PT Freeport Indonesia is too high.

PT Freeport, which has large copper and gold mines in Papua, has set the price of 10.64 percent stake it is to divest this year is US$1.7 billion or around Rp20 trillion.

The Indonesian unit of the US mining giant Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold, is required by the regulation to divest 10.64 percent of its shares to Indonesian partner this year with the first offer to the government.

Rini said the price offered by Freeport did not reflect the real condition of the market of commodities produced by the US company.

"We are interested in the shares of Freeport, but we think the price is too expensive," she said here on Tuesday.

Rini said she has asked two BUMNs -- PT Danareksa and PT Mandiri Sekuritas -- to evaluate the offer made by Freeport Indonesia.

"We also make evaluation by asking for inputs about the real value of Freeport," she said.

The evaluation is to see whether the company has made calculation on the present value, book value assets or on the prices of its copper and gold reserves, she added.

She said currently the copper price has declined sharply, therefore, the price offered is too high.

She said BUMNs are interested in buying the shares as they need to have an experience in running big mines.

"The mines (Freeport) belong to Indonesia, therefore, we as BUMNs could take part in the operation of big mines like Freeport," she added.

However, the government and BUMNs have yet to discuss the plan to acquire the stake in Freeport.

Earlier Rini said four state mining companies - PT Aneka Tambang Tbk, PT Bukit Asam Tbk, PT Timah Tbk and PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) are ready to jointly acquire a stake in Freeport Indonesia.

She said it was important for the four state companies to create synergy to form a world class mining company.

Freeport Indonesia is required to divest 30 percent of its shares until 2019 -- 20 percent in 2016 and 10 percent in 2019.

This year, the divestment by Freeport would be only 10.64 percent as the government already has a 9.36 percent stake in the company.

The government has indicated it would not buy the shares.

No fund set aside in the state budget to buy the 10.64 percent stake in Freeport Indonesia this year, Minister for National Development Planning/head of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas) Sofyan Djalil has said.

"The government has no money for it. Even if we have, we prefer to use the money to finance infrastructure development," Sofyan said last week.

Currently the likeliest option is for state companies (BUMN) to buy the shares, he said.

He said the BUMNs interested in the stake should start reevaluate the offer and study the financial risks as the prices of gold and copper are now on the decline.

"Please reevaluate. What they have given was an offer price. The share price of the company is shrinking," he said.

Sofyan described as a good step for BUMNs to acquire the share of Freeport to increase national ownership of the company.

According to a government regulation, the evaluation of the share value is to be wrapped up in 60 days.

The government has issued a regulation on minerals and coal requiring foreign mineral and coal contractors to divest part of their shares after they operated at a certain time.

Divestment is set 51 percent stake for mining companies operating only mining activities, 40 percent for ones operating mining and smelter and 30 percent from ones operating underground mining like Freeport Indonesia. (WDY)