Temasek eyeing PT Chandra Asri: Report

SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore's Temasek Holdings is stepping up its global buying spree by offering to buy control of Indonesia's biggest petrochemical firm PT Chandra Asri, a newspaper reported here Thursday.

The Business Times said the state-linked investment firm had signed a letter of intent to take a controlling interest in the petrochemical firm, whose production complex is located on the western tip of Java island.

The newspaper said Temasek was "close to paying" an estimated US$700 million for a stake in Chandra Asri, which is owned by Japan's Marubeni, Malaysia's Glazers and Putnam and Indonesian investors.

This would raise Temasek's Indonesian investments to $3 billion since 1997, it added. A spokeswoman for Temasek said it had no comment to make on the report. Temasek normally announces only completed deals. Its global portfolio now exceeds $60 billion.

In Indonesia, the Temasek group has direct or indirect stakes in telecommunications firms Indosat and Telkomsel, Bank Internasional Indonesia and Bank Danamon Indonesia.

News of the Chandra Asri offer closely follows a Temasek-led group's purchase of shares in a Thai telecommunications firm, Shin Corp, from the family of Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Temasek's fully-owned subsidiary PSA International has also made an offer for British port giant P and O that has been topped by Dubai-based rival DP World in what is shaping up to be a high-stakes bidding war.

Source:
The Jakarta Post
February 02, 2006