Flag carrier Garuda Indonesia mayhave to extend the waiting period foran initial public offering. The Departmentof State Owned Enterprises(SOE) has scheduled the carrier and itssubsidiary companies for initial publicoffering/IPO this year 2007.

However, the company is still uncertainas it is waiting for strategicinvestors to join. It is planned thatthe government, as the carrier’s soleshareholder, will release 49 percent ofshares to strategic partners.

The government has agreed torelease part of its shares to strategicpartners. However, there is no fixedpercentage to be given to investors.

Minister of State Owned Enterprises(SOE) Sugiharto said earlier the governmenthad received expressions ofinterest from investors from MiddleEast, North America and Europe.However, he did not provide details ofthe candidates.

Garuda’s subsidiary companiesincluded in privatisation plan areground handling company PT. GapuraAngkasa, PT Aerowisata, which handlestravel, hotel, transportation and cateringservices, PT. Abacus DistributionSystem and PT Garuda MaintenanceFacility Aero Asia.

According to the minister, Garuda’ssustainable debt is US$300 million fromtotal debt US$774 million.

To help Garuda the governmentwill inject Rp1 trillion, of which half(Rp500 million) comes from the 2006state budget, while the rest is from thisyear’s budget.

In addition, the airline needsUS$230 million for a restructuringprogramme.

– Siktus Harson