Standard Chartered buys 13.5% stake in Trikomsel

JAKARTA. A Hong Kong-based investment company Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited has acquired a 13.5 percent stake in PT Trikomsel Oke, becoming a major shareholder of the publicly listed telephone distributor.

According to a file submitted to the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), the private equity company bought 600.75 million shares on June 22 with a total transaction value of Rp 498.62 billion (US$53.35 million) or Rp 830 per share. The price was higher than Trikomsel’s shares price during opening session on June 22 at Rp 820 but lower that the closing price at Rp 850 a piece.

Shares in Trikomsel (TRIO) were unchanged at Rp 810 a piece on Friday. The company’s share price has declined about 9 percent so far this year.

“Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited purchased the shares from Trikomsel’s existing institutional shareholders from the market,” Trikomsel president director Sugiono Wiyono Sugialam said on Friday.

The purchase was aimed for investment, Standard Chartered Private Equity director Andrew Dawson said in a statement attached to Trikomsel’s disclosure to the bourse.

Prior to the transaction, Trikomsel is 61.13 percent owned by JP Morgan Luxembourg SA, 25 percent by JPMIB Canopus Finance Limited, 2.64 percent by directors and commissioners and 11.23 percent by the public.

No figures on shareholders’ ownership are available after the deal.

Trikomsel is a distribution company and a retailer for mobile telecommunications devices and also other equipment such as netbooks, printers and other accessories. As of the end of December 2011, the company has 860 outlets called “Oke Shop” in 153 cities nationwide. The company is targeting to raise up to Rp 12 trillion in revenue this year, increasing about 70 percent from last year’s Rp 7 trillion. The increase will be supported by new subsidiary PT Global Teleshop, of which Trikomsel planned to acquire an 80 percent stake in the company from PT Trilinum.

Trikomsel is carrying out a pre-emptive rights issue to obtain a total of Rp 1.07 trillion from selling new shares and issuing convertible bonds. The company will obtain Rp 266.64 billion from selling new shares and Ro 807.55 billion from convertible bonds.

PT Equator Capital Partners serves as a standby buyer for Trikomsel’s issuances.

Sugiono did not comment on questions whether Standard Chartered would exercise its right to take shares during the preemptive rights issuance.

According to a recent prospectus published, Trikomsel has set June 28 as the latest date for recording a list of shareholders entitled to the issuance.

About 80 percent of the funds raised from the proceeds will be used to finance the acquisition of Global Teleshop, which is the second largest phone seller in the country. Global Teleshop itself is planning to off load 111.1 million shares, or 10 percent of its enlarged capital, to the public at a price ranging between Rp 1,000 and Rp 1,150 a piece, which will see the company raise up to Rp 127 billion.

Trikomsel reaped Rp 1.98 trillion in revenue during the January to March period of this year, a 34 percent surge from Rp 1.47 trillion in the same period last year.

Its net profit stood at Rp 81.03 billion in the first three months of the year, increasing by 39 percent from Rp 58.13 billion in the same period last year. (Raras Cahyafitri, The Jakarta Post)