Tensions have been brewing at the miner for some time
THE RELATIONSHIP between Bumi and its Indonesian unit has been under strain in the past.
Bumi’s man in London, Nat Rothschild, last year criticised the management of the Bakrie family, which holds a 29 per cent stake of Bumi Resources, and called for a “radical cleaning up” of the Indonesian company in a letter to the Bakries that was subsequently leaked.
Yesterday Sir Julian Horn-Smith said he and other independent non-executive directors of Bumi ordered the legal investigation into the claims after receiving information “very recently”.
Horn-Smith, a former director of Lloyds Banking Group, quashed fears that the irregularities were linked to Bumi’s UK operations, and said yesterday that some conclusions from the investigation could hopefully be drawn before the end of the year.
Financier Rothschild amassed a ring of influential directors to guide Bumi through its IPO, including Horn-Smith, Lord Renwick, Steven Shapiro, Graham Hearne, James Campbell and Robert Sinclair, some of whom still sit on the Bumi board today.