LONDON--Bumi PLC (BUMI.LN) said Monday it has requested that
trading in its shares on the London Stock Exchange be temporarily
suspended because its 2012 financial results will miss a disclosure
deadline as the company investigates the integrity of information
on the balance sheet of its Indonesian coal-mining subsidiary PT
Berau Coal Energy Tbk (BRAU.JK).
"The new management team at Berau is overseeing a full audit
review," after certain expenditures at the company relating to
hauling roads and land compensation payments in 2012 had to be
reclassified as costs, rather than capital expenditures, the
company said in a statement. "Berau management is now fully
verifying all existing material contracts," with its auditors
PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Ernst and Young and aims to publish its
results in May, it said.
The deadline for publication of 2012 results on the London Stock
Exchange is April 24.
"Verifying the balance sheet is a necessary step to rebuild
investor trust, and to achieve that a temporary suspension in
trading is required," Bumi Chief Executive Officer Nick von
Schirnding said.
The company said last week that Chief Financial Officer Scott
Merrillees, who is based in Indonesia, will step down from his
current role after the company's annual general meeting on June 26
in order to focus on his role as CFO of Berau Coal.
The problems verifying Berau's balance sheet are the latest in a
series of controversies that have dogged Bumi recently. It is only
two months since the company took a decisive step towards resolving
a long-running and bitter dispute between its founding
shareholders, British financier Nathaniel Rothschild and the
powerful Bakrie family of Indonesia, over corporate governance and
control of Bumi's board.
Bumi shareholders voted in February to back the company's
current board and its plan to separate its interests in from those
of the Bakrie family. The delay to the 2012 results has not
affected that separation plan, the company said.
The Bakrie Group wants to buy back its stake in PT Bumi
Resources, the Indonesian mining company in which Bumi PLC owns a
29% stake, by surrendering its Bumi PLC shares and paying Bumi $278
million in cash. After the separation, Bumi will retain an 85%
stake in Berau.
Liberum Capital reaffirmed its buy recommendation on Bumi
despite the delayed release of the annual results on expectation
that the company can deliver a successful separation from Bumi
Resources, most likely by the middle of the year.
"New CEO Nick von Schirnding is four months into the job and is
clearly focussed on delivering a clean set of numbers, the first
under his watch," analysts at Liberum wrote in a note.
Write to James Herron at james.herron@dowjones.com
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