Matahari Says Suitors May Complete Due Diligence in January

Four companies interested in investing in PT Matahari Putra Prima, Indonesia’s biggest retailer by market value, may complete their due diligence in the first week of January, a spokesman said. 

 

“We expected them to finish before the end of this month, but I think it may be done in the first week of January,” Danny Kojongian, Matahari’s director of corporate communications, said by phone in Jakarta today. 

Bank of America Corp.’s Merrill Lynch unit is facilitating discussions with four companies, including South Korea’s Lotte Shopping Co., that may “explore the modes of investment” that may include a stake sale, Matahari said in a statement Dec. 3. 

“We’re still waiting for Merrill’s review,” of the companies, Kojongian said today.

A purchase would give the buyer control over the biggest rival to Carrefour SA in Southeast Asia’s largest economy, which is forecast to expand at least 6 percent this year. Matahari’s hypermarket business has annual sales of about $1 billion that will probably grow 22 percent this year, the statement said. 

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and French retailer Casino Guichard- Perrachon SA are among the companies that have looked at the assets, people familiar with the deal said in November.

Matahari, which means “sun” in Indonesian, has 51 hypermarkets in Southeast Asia’s most populous nation, where domestic consumption accounts for two-thirds of the economy.Source: Bloomberg