Syahrial Ali's Blog

Indonesian Minister of Communication and Information has appointed PT Bakrie Telecom as the winner for the selection of long distance service provider using fixed network on December 16, 2008. Previously Bakrietel competed with Mobile-8 for this license. However, Mobile-8 was not really serious when it did not hand in the bid bond. So, Bakrietel just compete with them selves for administration completeness and they pass.

As the winner, Bakrietel should hand in the performance bond on January 9th, 2009 at the latest. If they fail to do that, then their bid bond will be cashed in by the selection committee. This case will not eliminate Bakrietel obligation to hand in the performance bond. The principal license will be released on January 23rd, 2009.

Last year, Bakrietel also won the license of international call service provider. It completes the previous nationwide license of fixed wireless access with limited mobility. Congratulation for Bakrietel. They already have several tools for success.

The rumor that Sinar Mas wants to buy Bakrietel share  was heard for a long time. However, both parties have been denied it frequently. Kontan Daily reported today that Sinar Mas has bought Bakrietel for 6.2% of share or equal to 1.76 billion of share. According to BEI data, Sinar Mas has done it last month.

If calculated according to the Bakrietel price during last November, then Sinar Mas has been invested around IDR 100 billion. After entering Bakrietel, then share composition of Bakrietel are Bakrie & Brother: 22.43%; Credit Suisse Singapore Branch: 8.08%; Sinar Mas: 6.2%; and the rest owned by public.

For your information, Bakrietel is a company which has a CDMA lisence under the product name: ESIA. Last year Bakrietel just won International Call Service Provider, and Bakrietel is about to win National Long Distance Call Service Provider.