I do not want to talk about it either."
Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State Enterprise Minister Dahlan Iskan chose not to make any comments on the state-owned oil and gas company, Pertaminas planned acquisition of the state-owned gas distribution firm, PT PGN.

"I refuse to comment about it in the first place," Iskan stated at his office here on Tuesday.

He emphasized that he will not like to comment on it before PT Danareksa Sekuritas and PT Bahana Securities, the two companies assigned to conduct a study on the acquisition plan, had published their results.

Iskan pointed out that he will only divulge details based on the results of the two companies studies. He had earlier assigned the two companies the task of coming up with viable options regarding Pertaminas plan to acquire PT PGN.

The minister noted that there are two options involved in carrying out the acquisition. The first option entails the acquisition to be carried out in two stages, while the second option involves the acquisition to be carried out in a single stage.

Based on the first option, PT PGN will acquire Pertaminas subsidiary, PT Pertagas (a gas firm), in the first stage and in the second stage, Pertamina will acquire PT PGN.

In the second option, Pertamina directly acquires PT PGN, but its entity as the biggest energy company in the country will still remain.

In connection with the planned merger of the two companies, a number of quarters have pointed out that the plan had led to a fall in the share price of PT PGN in the capital market.

"I do not want to talk about it either. The fall in the share prices of PT PGN is not due to the news of the merger," Minister Iskan emphasized.

Last month, Iskan claimed that the share price of PT PGN in the capital market will not decline if it is acquired by PT Pertamina.

"I think the price of its shares will drastically increase if PT PGN is acquired by PT Pertamina," the minister recently remarked on January 17.

He explained that in general, the capital market players shared different opinions from those of the public.

"Capital markets have price fluctuation characteristics. The prices remain volatile. But, the capital market players are always optimistic that the share prices will continue to increase if the company has good fundamentals," the minister added.

Therefore, Dahlan noted that he did not believe that the price of PT PGNs shares will fall.

"The corporate action will not reduce the value and volume of the shares owned by the shareholders of both the companies," he remarked.

According to Iskan, the government has agreed to PT Pertaminas plan to acquire PT PGN and requested it to conduct a study on its corporate action plan. The governments agreement was stated in a document, the copy of which was recently made available to Antara.

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(A014/INE/H-YH)

EDITED BY INE



(T.A014/A/KR-BSR/A/H-YH) 04-02-2014 17:33:35

Editor: Priyambodo RH
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