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Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) II plans to buy back a 51 percent stake in Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT) from Hong Kong-based Hutchison Port Holdings (HPH).
"We will inform HPH Group that we plan to buy back the stake in JICT this year," revealed president director of Pelindo II, Abdullah Syaifuddin.
At the moment, he continued, Pelindo has prepared a special budget to buy back its stake in one of the terminal operators at Tanjung Priok port, Jakarta.
He explained that the plan aimed at increasing the share of Pelindo to 100 percent in a bid to improve competitiveness against other terminal operators.
When JICT was privatised in 1999, Pelindo II only got a 48.9 percent stake, HPH a 51 percent stake, and the employees had the rest. JICT currently has 100 hectares of area that can accommodate over 1.5 million TEUs per annum with sophisticated loading-unloading gears.
Syaifuddin said that Pelindo could not make any improvement or business expansion to grow JICT since Pelindo II is only a minority shareholder.
Early last year, Pelindo II said at its shareholders meeting it planned to buy back HPH¨s stake in JICT but the plan was rejected by HPH.
"We at the time wanted to control the entire stake in JICT, but HPH didn't want to dispose the stake," said Syaifuddin.
Minister of Transportation Jusman Syafii Djamal said the government warmly welcomed the buyback plan to improve the administration of Tanjung Priok port. "This is the right of Pelindo II, and I think the plan is good," he inserted.
The Minister of Transportation further also disclosed that the department was preparing a plan to merge JICT with Koja Container Terminal by October 2007.
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