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Altimo, a subsidiary of Russia's Alfa Group, will not back
down on its investment plans for Indonesia despite allegations of a
commercially motivated smear campaign levied by a number of civil
society groups, a company official said.
"We will never give up on our plan, including the possibility of buying
a mobile telecoms operator here," Altimo local chief representative
Soeharto told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
The company has been making it clear since last December that it wants
into the Indonesian telecoms market through a stake in one of the
existing players, and is ready to invest up to US$2 billion in total.
Soeharto said that buying a stake in an existing operator would be
easier than setting up a new one and starting from scratch.
"Acquiring shares on the stock market would also be difficult as the
number of shares on offer are limited so that their price would rocket
as soon as the market got wind of what was going on."
However, Altimo's moves have been condemned by various civil society
groups, including Indonesia Development Monitoring (IDM) and the
Federation of State Enterprise Labor Unions (SP-BUMN).
In the light of Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Jakarta on
Sept. 6, when he will be accompanied by representatives of the Alfa
Group, IDM issued a statement urging President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
to be cautious, particularly as regards Altimo's alleged offer of a
loan to the government to buy back the shares it sold in PT Indosat to
Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT).
STT, which is wholly owned by Temasek Holdings, holds a 75 percent
stake in Asia Mobile Holdings, which controls a 41.9 percent stake in
Indosat.
Last week, Russian online business news portal Kommersant reported that
senior Alfa Group officials were scheduled to accompany Putin on his
visit to encourage a buyback by the Indonesian government.
"We believe that Altimo is involved in a conspiracy to force Temasek to
sell its stake in Indosat using pressure from the Business Competition
Supervisory Commission (KPPU)," IDM spokesperson Muhammad Ramdhoni told
a media conference, referring to a KPPU investigation into alleged
unfair business practices by Temasek.
Meanwhile, SP-BUMN president Arief Poyuono echoed IDM's allegation,
saying that Altimo and the KPPU were conspiring against Temasek.
In response, Altimo vice president for corporate communications Kirill
Babaev told the Post that the company denied the accusations, adding
that the remarks by the IDM and SP-BUMN were proof that it was in fact
Altimo that was the victim of a smear campaign.
Soeharto also said: "Indosat is not the only available option. Besides,
STT can sell its stake to whoever it wants. So, there is no reason for
us to engage in a so-called conspiracy," Soeharto said.
The KPPU has denied it has been conspiring with Altimo to the detriment
of Temasek.
Backed by a study by the University of Indonesia's Institute for
Economic and Social Research (LPEM-UI), which has since been
contradicted by another study, the KPPU decided in May to launch a
probe, which is expected to be completed before Sept. 25.
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