...his is not taking over of the company but it become state-owned by itself...Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State-owned Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan said that PT Inalum will become the 143th state-owned company after its contract with Japan expires.
"After its contract expires, Inalum will automatically become state company because 100 percent of its shares are owned by the state," Minister Dahlan said here on Tuesday.
He said that with the government controlling its stake, Inalum was not taken over but its status automatically changed (into state company)," the minister said.
"So, this is not taking over of the company but it become state-owned by itself," he said.
However, Dahlan who is also a former president director of state utility company PLN said that he had no idea on how much the purchase value of Inalum because it was still under negotiations.
"I just want to follow the price set by a team set up for that purpose. The team is still calculating it," the minister explained.
He said that on the one hand Inalum would increase the number of state-owned companies while on the other the ministry of enterprises was doing its best to right size the number of state companies from 142 at present to only about 86 in 2014 and 25 in 2025.
In the meantime, Minister of Industry MS Hidayat said that the governments of Indonesia and Japan still had difference over the value of Inalum which reached US$140 million.
"Japan referred the book value of Inalum based on the results of its revaluation in 1998 while the Indonesian government referred to its value before the revaluation," Hidayat said.
For this, the Indonesian government will continue to negotiate it with Japan over the different value aspect in an effort to speed up the process of the change in the status of the company.
Hidayat who is also the team chairman for the purchase of Inalum said that the fund transfer for the purchase of Inalum reached Rp7 trillion, of which Rp2 trillion from the state budget 2012 and Rp5 trillion from state budget 2013.
The government since the beginning is planning to acquire PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum), a joint venture between Indonesia and Japan producing aluminum in Asahan, North Sumatra, with an equity ownership ratio of 41 : 59.
Japan with 12 private Japanese firms in the joint venture is the majority share holder, namely 59 percent while Indonesia only owns 41 percent.
The project began operating on January 6, 1976 based on a master of agreement signed on July 7, 1975 and would expire in 2013.
Now, Inalum has a production capacity of 230,000 - 240,000 tons per annum. PT Inalum booked a profit of US$12 million in 2010 while its debt burden amounted to US$70 million.
Last year, then Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo stated that the ownership of Inalum should return to the government after the expiry of the contract in October next year (2013).
"Japan`s Nippon Asahan Aluminium should no longer extend the cooperation contract. Moreover, Indonesia has suffered losses for about 22 years during the cooperation," he said.
Editor: Ella Syafputri
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