State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto and the House of Representatives Commission VI have agreed to retain the government’s 51 percent stake in publicly listed PT Semen Gresik.
Foreign control over Semen Gresik is feared to give rooms for the emergence of a cement cartel that will play around with cement price.
"The government is not going to dispose its 51 percent stake in Semen Gresik (SG) and we will fight hard in the arbitrage process against. We will also engage in negotiations with Cemex to come up with out-of-court settlement," Sugiharto said in the working meeting with the House Commission VI yesterday.
By contrast, Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Aburizal Bakrie previously said that the government had no objection if the 51 percent stake that the government controlled was disposed to Cemex, which currently held a 25.5 percent stake in SG.
In the meantime, member of the House Commission VI Didiek J. Rachbini argued that the Semen Gresik issue had something to do with the interests of cartel players to control cement price in Indonesia.
