"The government insists that Freeport pays its dividend, although it is in the form of interim dividend because it has been included in the state-owned companies payment in the 2014 budget," he said after a meeting at his office here on Thursday.
He added that the demand for interim dividend will be immediately submitted to the Freeport management to meet the 2014 budget obligation.
An interim dividend is a payment made by a company to shareholders before the end of the fiscal year. In the Freeport context, the payment of interim dividend will be allocated from the net profit of the 2014 fiscal year and deducted from the final dividend.
Dahlan said the government had set total dividends from state-owned companies in the 2014 budget at Rp40 trillion. The target, however, was predicted not be met as among others Freeport had failed to pay Rp1.5 trillion in interim dividend.
"As a Freeport shareholder with a 9.3 percent stake, the government had the right to obtain the payment proposed to be paid in the form of interim dividend," he added.
Dahlan said it was up to Freeport whether to borrow or take any action it needed to take to raise the funds required, but it was important for the company to meet its obligation.
He noted that during the Freeport shareholders meeting recently, the government representative had urged the US company to pay the dividend in cash, but "the government cannot do anything as it only holds 9.3 percent of the shares, even if there was a vote the government will lose. This actually hurts. Even with the government representatives presence they can decide not to pay."
Coordinating minister Hatta Rajasa, meanwhile, had asked for the handling of the dividend payment. "It was the right of the government that it must be put into the state coffers," he said.
Reporting by Royke Sinaga
(R017/H-YH/INE)
EDITED BY INE.
Editor: Suryanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2014
