They were dancing in the corridors of power in Jakarta at the weekend after the hugely successful privatization of the government's 42% stake in PT Indosat. Singapore Technologies Telemedia STT agreed to pay Rp12,950 a share, a 51% premium to Friday's closing price of Indosat stock.
In what has to be one of the cleanest privatization exercises the Indonesian government has ever conducted, STT beat out its only other rival bidder, Telekom Malaysia when final bids were submitted at 5pm on Friday. With the proceeds of this transaction, the Indonesian government will actually meet its privatisation target for the year, the first time this has ever happened.
The privatization process began on August 22 when...
