ID :
64333
Fri, 06/05/2009 - 15:47
Auther :

NO NEED TO FORM ASSESSMENT TEAM ON NEWMONT ASSETS : OBSERVER

Jakarta, June 5 (ANTARA) - The government does not need to form an independent assessment team to calculate the divestment value of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), energy observer Pri Agung Rakhmanto said.

"The government should be convinced about the correctness of its own calculation. The use of an independent assessment team will only lead to a waste of funds and time," he said here on Friday.

He said that the government should stick to its calculation because it had a strong basis, namely the decision of an international arbitration court.

After all, the government's calculation on the value of NNT divestment which reached US$3.7 billion is already high, Rakhmanto who is also executive director of ReforMiner Institute, said.

He said that based on the annual report of NNT in 2008, the value of total assets of Newmont Mining Corporation (NMC) --the holding company of NNT-- was only US$15.839 billion. The value of NMC's assets in Indonesia, including that of NNT and PT Newmont Minahasa Raya (NMR), is about 17 percent (of the US$15.839 billion).

"With that reference, the combined value of NNT and NMR's assets is only about US$2.693 billion," Rakhmanto said.
In the meantime, Bambang Gatot Ariyono, director for mineral and coal affairs of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said that based on the contract if NNT and the government had not agreed a price up to June 15, 2008, an independent assessment team would be formed.

The government and NNT have reached an agreement for the divestment of 3 percent worth US$109 million of the company's shares for 2006 with assets valued at US$3.63 billion, and 7 percent worth US$282 million for 2007 with assets estimated at US$4.03 billion.

However both sides are still negotiating the divestment of 7 percent of NTT stake for 2008 and 2009 respectively.

Last year, NNT and the government went through an international arbitration procedure following a dispute on how to implement the divestment scheme.

The court ruled in favor of the Indonesian government. Under the international arbitration court ruling, Newmont is required to sell 17 percent of its stake which was supposed to be carried out in the 2006-2008 period.

In addition, Newmont will also sell 14 percent of its stake allocated for 2009 and 2010, bringing the total of shares Newmont has to sell to 31 percent.

Under a 1986 contract, Newmont must gradually sell 31 percent of its stake in NNT to the government or local parties it will appoint in 2010. ***2***



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