Netty Ismail
Bloomberg
Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore’s state-owned investment company, said it will pay a fine after it was notified that its application for a court review of an anti- monopoly case was rejected by the Indonesian Supreme Court.
Temasek lost its final appeal in the Supreme Court on May 24 for violating antitrust laws, the Indonesian court said on its website at the time. A fine of 150 billion rupiah ($17 million), or 15 billion rupiah for each of 10 Temasek-linked companies involved in the case, was set, the anti-monopoly agency said.
The Indonesian competition regulator KPPU has said Temasek breached antitrust laws by using indirect stakes in PT Telekomunikasi Selular, known as Telkomsel, and PT Indosat, the country’s top two mobile-phone service providers, to fix prices.
“Temasek is disappointed that its application for civil review has been rejected as it has not contravened Indonesia’s anti-monopoly laws,” Goh Yong Siang, senior managing director of strategic relations, said in an e-mailed statement today. “As an international investor, Temasek continues to comply with the laws and regulations of Indonesia in its activities in Indonesia, and will duly follow up to pay the KPPU fine without prejudice to its legal position, and reserves all its rights.”
Temasek’s Singapore Technologies Telemedia Pte unit sold its stake in Indosat, Indonesia’s second-largest mobile-phone services provider, to Qatar Telecom QSC in June 2008 after an earlier district court ruling. A unit of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., Southeast Asia’s biggest phone operator and majority owned by Temasek, has a 35 percent stake in Telkomsel, the biggest mobile carrier.
The Indonesian anti-monopoly agency said last month it was “inventorying” Temasek’s assets in the country and the government has the right to seize them if a court-imposed fine isn’t paid. The Singapore company said at the time it didn’t receive the court’s notification.