JAKARTA. Rumors are circulating that Ooredoo Asia Pte Ltd, the biggest shareholder of PT Indosat Ooredoo Tbk (ISAT) will move from telecommunication business in Indonesia.

As quoted by Bloomberg yesterday (20/9), the Qatar-based telecommunication company is now considering to sale 65% of Indosat Ooredo’s shares to similar company, which wants to expand the business to Indonesia.

Indosat is predicted to have a market value of about US$ 1.4 billion. In other words, Ooredoo will reap US$ 910 million or about IDR 11.83 trillion of funds through the selling.

However, under the current market value Ooredo will sale its shares at a loss. In 2008, Qatar Telecom (the previous name of Ooredoo) had to spend US$1.8 billion to buy Indosat from Singapore Technologies Telemedia. Moreover, in 2009 the company had to spend another IDR 9 trillion to buy up public shares.

Ooredoo currently is said to focus in developing telecommunication business in Middle East area.

Ooredoo actually tries to reduce the loss by selling the shares at a loss. Since expanded to Indosat in 2008 and became the biggest shareholder at the company in 2009, Ooredo showed unsatisfactory performance.  After suffering losses for several years, Ooredoo just booked IDR 255 billion of profit in the first semester of 2013.

The Ooredoo’s indebtness, as well as legal problem involving Ooredo’s subsidiary are said to become major reasons behind the losses.

Rumors are circulating that PT Smartfren Telecom, Sinar Mas Group is exploring to acquire the major shares of Indosat. However, President Director of PT Indosat Ooredoo Tbk dismissed the rumor. He clarified that Ooredo headquarters in Qatar  did not know about this information.

Managing Director of Sinar Mas Group Gandi Sulistyo also dismissed the rumors. He claimed that so far Sinar Mas does not have plan to acquire Indosat Ooredoo’s shares.

Ooredoo has denied speculation over plans to sell Indosat. It said has no intention of selling its interest in the business.

"Indosat Ooredoo is Ooredoo's biggest international market and is strategically important to Ooredoo's corporate strategy given its long term growth prospects," Oordeoo said in its official website. (Translator: Muhammad Farid)

Editor: Sanny Cicilia