Semen Cibinong under investigation

The Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) planned to investigate the skyrocketing price of Semen Cibinong’s shares by 75 per cent ahead of the plan of majority ownership on the cement manufacturing company from Holchim to Holderfin BV.  Harry Wiguna, the listing director of the bourse, said that the skyrocketing prices of the shares of Cibinong happened some days before the transfer of the shares.  "We want to investigate why the share’s price skyrocketed jus some days before the transfer of the shares," Wiguna said in Jakarta yesterday. 

On December 30 last year, Holcim Participations (Mauritius) Limited had transferred its whole shares (77.3 per cent) of Semen Cibinong to Holderfin BV, a holding company controlling 100 per cent shares of Holcimin Participation.  Sihol Siagian, the listing director of the bourse, said that the price of Semen Cibinong had increased by 75 per cent from September 6 to December 29 last year. 

He even said that the share’s price of Semen Cibinong was still increasing after the transfer of the shares, so that the accumulative increase of the share’s price had reached 100 per cent since September 6. The increase of the share’s price was weird, he said, as it was not supported by any corporate action of the cement manufacturing company. 

"The financial performance of the cement company was even worse in 2004 than that in 2003. During the third quarter of 2004 the company suffered from some losses, while the transfer of the shares was from a subsidiary to its holding company," he said.  The financial report of Semen Cibinong on the third quarter of 2004 reported that the company booked net losses of IDR379 billion.  Siagian said that the bourse had not decided on whether there had been some mistakes behind such share’s price increase. But he said that the bourse would investigate the case.