Qtel to pay original price for PT Indosat shares

by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Sunday, 30 November 2008

ASKING PRICE: Qtel have agreed to pay the original offer price, said Indonesia's regulator. (Getty Images)

Qatar Telecom (Qtel) has agreed to pay its original offer price for a controlling stake in Indonesia’s second-largest telephone company, PT Indosat, newswire Bloomberg reported on Saturday.

The Qatari company will have to spend 9.71 trillion rupiah ($802 million) to raise its stake, Bloomberg said.

Qatar Telecom will offer 7,388 rupiah a share to increase its Indosat stake, Ahmed Fuad Rahmany, chairman of the Indonesian regulator, said.

The government on Oct. 27 allowed the Qatari company, which owns 40.8 percent of Indosat, to raise its holding to 65 percent.

Story continues below ↓

The following day Qatar Telecom said it would pay 6,416 rupiah each for the additional shares after heavy falls in global stock markets.

Shares of Jakarta-based Indosat surged 20 percent, its daily limit, after Rahmany’s comments on the higher offer price, the biggest jump since October 1998. The offer price was 74 percent more than the stock’s midday close of 4,250 rupiah.

Qatar Telecom in June paid $1.8 billion, or 7,388 rupiah a share, to buy a 40.8 percent stake in Indosat from its venture with Singapore’s Temasek Holdings Pte unit. The company said on June 26 it would pay 7,388 rupiah per share to increase its stake.