JAKARTA (XFN-ASIA) - Suez Environment, a unit of diversified industrial group Suez SA of France, says it has completed the sale of its 49 pct stake in its fully-owned Indonesian unit PT PAM Lyonnaise Jaya (Palyja) to a local partner, PT Astratel Nusantara, and to Citigroup Financial Products Inc.
Astratel Nusantara is a subsidiary of Astra International.
In a statement, Suez Environment said the number of shares sold to Astratel and Citigroup represent 30 pct and 19 pct of Palyja respectively, while Suez's stake has been cut to 51 pct.
Palyja president Thierry Krieg said the stake sale was undertaken to help strengthen Palyja's performance in providing clean water to its customers in Jakarta.
'By having a competent local shareholder in the infrastructure sector, it is expected that Palyja will be strengthened to face challenges in the future,' Krieg said.
'The share sale transaction was done in compliance with the existing rules,' he added.
The company said since 1998, Palyja has invested almost 1 trln rupiah in its business, with the biggest percentage of investment going to the pipe network rehabilitation and expansion of Palyja's service area which covers more than 1,606.2 km.
In 2006, the company booked revenue of 649 bln rupiah and counted 344,368 customers.
'Palyja represents an opportunity as an entry point into Indonesia's water infrastructure sector that we expect will require more private sector participation in the future, ' Astratel president Angky Tisnadisastra said, commenting on the stake purchase.
Suez Environment did not disclose the value of the stake sale.
(1 usd = 9,130 rupiah)
roffie.kurniawan@xinhuafinance.com
© 2006 AFX News
