Reutershttp://www.singapore-window.org//sw06/061226RE.HTM
December 26, 2006
JAKARTA, Indonesia
AN Indonesian union has delayed plans to file a lawsuit against Singapore state investment arm Temasek Holdings to early January instead of on Tuesday, Dec 26, as previously planned, the union's leader said.
The lawsuit, accusing Temasek of monopolistic practices in Indonesia's lucrative mobile phone market, has been delayed to January 9 as the union's lawyers were currently on leave, union president Arief Poyuono said.
The union has said the legal action was in the interest of Indonesian cellphone subscribers, who it said faced higher charges as a result of Temasek's monopolistic behaviour.
"(Our) lawyers are still on leave," Poyuono, who heads the Federation of State-Owned Enterprises Employees Union, told Reuters when asked about the reasons behind the delay.
"January 9, that is for sure. There will be no more delays," he said when asked when the union plans to file the suit.
Temasek, which directly and indirectly owns large stakes in Indonesia's dominant mobile phone companies, PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) and PT Indosat, also faces a similar complaint made to an Indonesian competition regulator.
Temasek has denied such charges, saying it is a firm advocate of open competition.
Telkomsel and Indosat together have about 80-90 percent of the Indonesian cellular market.
The union also demanded Temasek sell back a 41.94 percent stake in Indosat to the Indonesian government at the same price as when Indonesia sold the shares in 2002 as part of a wider Indonesian privatisation programme.
A Jakarta-based analyst said the union is likely to lose as it does not seem to have strong evidence to back up its claims and the government is unlikely to buy back Indosat due partly to budget constraints.
"It will take a lot of money to buy back Indosat, and I don't think the government will have enough money for that," said economist Fauzi Ichsan of Standard Chartered Bank.
Temasek has been aggressively expanding across Asia in a bid to boost returns on its S$129 billion ($84 billion) investment portfolio. It invested heavily in Indonesia in the wake of the Asian financial crisis in the late-1990s, buying stakes in telecoms and banks.
It owns 56 per cent of SingTel, which in turn owns around a third of Telkomsel, the country's biggest cellular operator. Telkomsel is majority-owned by government-controlled PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) .
Well, yes.. sooner or later our gov's monopolistic ways of doing business will draw negative attention from all over.Originally posted by alwaysdisturbed:now even neighbouring countries are getting du lan with sg.
Business is war. As long as it is legal, all methods are permissible. If you cannot keep up, you deserve to be closed down.Originally posted by ShutterBug:Well, yes.. sooner or later our gov's monopolistic ways of doing business will draw negative attention from all over.
I just wanna see how long, they can keep on denying..