Rothschild says plan is backed by 11 investors
BUMI co-founder Nat Rothschild said yesterday he had secured the backing of 11 investors for his counter proposal to restructure the London-listed miner.
Bumi yesterday confirmed it had received an updated letter from Rothschild to counter the Bakrie brothers’ proposal from October to divorce themselves from the London miner.
Rothschild’s updated proposal is understood to include plans for a rights issue to buy out board members Rosan Roeslani and Samin Tan, as well as agreeing to the Bakries’ share swap plan to cancel their shareholding in Bumi in return for the Indonesian assets they brought in two years ago.
Rothschild said yesterday he had support from the largest five institutional shareholders of Bumi – Abu Dhabi Investment Council, Schroders, Standard Life Investments, Taube Hodson Stonex and Artemis – as well as investors Robert Friedland and Hashim Djojohadikusumo.
“In my letter to the board, I attached non-binding letters of support from these investors, which together with my own commitment of $75m (£47m), represents a total of $342.5m to be made available in the form of new equity at Bumi,” Rothschild said.
Meanwhile, Rothschild dismissed claims made by the Bakrie Brothers that documents used as the basis of an investigation into alleged financial irregularities at the miner’s Indonesian arm could have been falsified, calling them a “trivial distraction”.
The Bumi board is due to meet tomorrow to review initial findings from London law firm Macfarlanes, which was commissioned in September to investigate alleged financial irregularities at Indonesian arm Bumi Resources.
A spokesman for key Bumi shareholders the Bakries said yesterday they believed the documents used as a basis for the legal investigation were stolen or hacked, with some even doctored to give a “misleading impression” of business transactions at Bumi Resources. The Bakries also disputed the idea that a whistleblower had leaked documents to the Bumi board.