Reuters
December 26, 2006
JAKARTA, Indonesia
AN Indonesian union has delayed plans to file a lawsuit against
Singapore state investment arm Temasek Holdings to early January
instead of on Tuesday, Dec 26, as previously planned, the union's
leader said.
The lawsuit, accusing Temasek of monopolistic practices in
Indonesia's lucrative mobile phone market, has been delayed to
January 9 as the union's lawyers were currently on leave, union
president Arief Poyuono said.
The union has said the legal action was in the interest of
Indonesian cellphone subscribers, who it said faced higher charges
as a result of Temasek's monopolistic behaviour.
"(Our) lawyers are still on leave," Poyuono, who heads the
Federation of State-Owned Enterprises Employees Union, told Reuters
when asked about the reasons behind the delay.
"January 9, that is for sure. There will be no more delays," he
said when asked when the union plans to file the suit.
Temasek, which directly and indirectly owns large stakes in
Indonesia's dominant mobile phone companies, PT Telekomunikasi
Selular (Telkomsel) and PT Indosat, also faces a similar complaint
made to an Indonesian competition regulator.
Temasek has denied such charges, saying it is a firm advocate of
open competition.
Telkomsel and Indosat together have about 80-90 percent of the
Indonesian cellular market.
The union also demanded Temasek sell back a 41.94 percent stake in
Indosat to the Indonesian government at the same price as when
Indonesia sold the shares in 2002 as part of a wider Indonesian
privatisation programme.
A Jakarta-based analyst said the union is likely to lose as it does
not seem to have strong evidence to back up its claims and the
government is unlikely to buy back Indosat due partly to budget
constraints.
"It will take a lot of money to buy back Indosat, and I don't think
the government will have enough money for that," said economist
Fauzi Ichsan of Standard Chartered Bank.
Temasek has been aggressively expanding across Asia in a bid to
boost returns on its S$129 billion ($84 billion) investment
portfolio. It invested heavily in Indonesia in the wake of the
Asian financial crisis in the late-1990s, buying stakes in telecoms
and banks.
It owns 56 per cent of SingTel, which in turn owns around a third
of Telkomsel, the country's biggest cellular operator. Telkomsel is
majority-owned by government-controlled PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia
(Telkom) .
http://www.singapore-window.org//sw06/061226RE.HTM
Another scenario like in Bangkok with Thaksin?