LONDON, Feb 20 – Indonesian group Bakrie, a key shareholder in coal miner Bumi Plc, said today it expected financier Nat Rothschild would remain on the board after a March meeting at which he was expected to be removed from his role as co-chairman.
The Bakrie Group and partner investor Samin Tan (picture), who together hold 29.9 per cent of Bumi’s voting shares, last week withdrew a request for a shareholder vote to remove co-chairman Rothschild and other directors, though they would still pursue planned changes in the boardroom.
It was not immediately clear if Rothschild, who owns almost 12 per cent of Bumi, would remain on the board if voted out of the co-chairman position by his Indonesian partners, though he has been expected to stay on in some capacity.
The Bakrie acknowledgement that Rothschild will stay on after March 26 was a sign the two sides have agreed to tone down their public recriminations, after the latest row this month renewed worries over corporate governance at Bumi.
Such worries had helped send London-listed Bumi’s shares sharply lower. The stock was up 0.5 per cent at 752p by 1307 GMT, having bounced from a low of 727p set earlier this month.
“We are still getting what we want. It is just being approached in a different way. It is not about Nat. It is about a board 100 per cent focused on the asset,” a spokesman for the Bakrie Group said on Monday. “For us, it is important about how we are perceived. We want to be perceived correctly.”
He said Bakrie Group expected its planned nominations to the board – Samin Tan as chairman, Indra Bakrie as co-chairman, Nalinkant Rathod as chief executive and Scott Merrillees as finance director – would be accepted.
All directors will step down at the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in June and will be considered for election or re-election.
Tensions between the two sides rose late last year as the Bakries believed Rothschild was trying to take over the firm on the cheap after it nearly defaulted on a US$1.3 billion (RM3.93 billion) loan, while Rothschild called for a “radical cleaning up” of the miner and its debts in a letter leaked to media in November.
Rothschild met Tan for the first time on Saturday, a source familiar with the matter said, after Tan finished a string of investor visits in London intended to reassure institutions. – Reuters
