Cemex SA de CV, owner of a 25% stake in Semen Gresik, denied it had given
any approval to Indonesian government’s buy back proposal. "This  is 
totally  untrue,"  a  spokesman wa quoted as saying.  "We  have not received
any proposal from the Indonesian government and of course we have not agreed
to anything."


The  statement  was  a  response  to a statement addressed recently by BUMN
Minister  Laksamana  Sukardi,  who  said  that  the government had obtained
Cemex’s  agreement  to  an offer for the government to buy back the Mexican
company’s stake in SGG.


Lorenzo Zambrano, Cemex’s chief executive,described  the  company’s
Indonesian experience as "very disappointing". He said  that  in hindsight,
Cemex would not have accepted a minority position at  all.  Moreover,  he 
said  that  the  company  had  actually  gone very aggressively  to  buy 
one  of the other private sector companies which was sold  to  our 
competitors.  "We  believed  that  they  (the  government of Indonesia)
would obey the contract, that they would obey the law."


Laksamana,  in  an interview conducted on Wednesday, 8 September 2004, said
that  there  had not been any decisions on the buy back plan, both from the
government  and  from  Cemex.  "There  have  not  been  any decisions about
pricing,  and  even  if  Cemex  would be the one buying our shares or if we
would  buy  its stakes," said he. "Cemex is the one who decides and defines
the appropriate market price and ratio," said he.


According  to  Laksamana,  Cemex  had  delayed  the  mandate  hand  over to
Indonesia.  Therefore,  he  expected  that  Cemex  could immediately make a
decision.  "We  have not given any deadlines to Cemex, however, the process
would  become  more  complicated  if they keep delaying and protracting the
decision making," said he. "I believe Cemex could realize that," he added.

When  asked  about  the possibilities of Cemex selling its stake, Laksamana
said  "The  main problem if Cemex pulls out is who would buy its shares. If
no  one  wants to buy the stake then the government would have to take over
the  stake,  while  it  is very unlikely for us (the government) to use the
state budget to execute the buy back," he concluded.