IEV Holdings disposes of stake in Indonesian unit IEV Gas

CATALIST-LISTED IEV Holdings said on Tuesday that it is proposing to dispose of its entire 95 per cent stake in loss-making indirectly-owned subsidiary PT IEV Gas for a cash consideration of 960 million rupiah (S$87,000).

The remaining 5 per cent stake in IEV Gas is held by Achwan Widiyanto, a director of IEV Gas. The purchaser of IEV Gas is PT Digas Energi Semesta, of which Mr Achwan is director and holds 72 per cent of the shares.

IEV Gas is primarily engaged in the business of sale and delivery of compressed natural gas (CNG) in Indonesia. Explaining the move, IEV Holdings said its mobile natural gas sector had been reporting losses since the financial year ended Dec 31, 2015, due to lower global energy prices and a challenging mobile natural gas business landscape in Indonesia.

"The proposed transaction would allow the company to dispose of its loss-making subsidiary and eventually exit from the mobile natural gas business in Indonesia," it said.

Intending to exit the mobile natural gas business, IEV Holdings had sought a valuation of the assets of IEV Gas. It had also mandated Hadromi and Partners to canvass the Indonesian market for interested parties who were keen to acquire IEV Gas's assets. Said IEV Holdings: "As several other Indonesian companies in the CNG business have also put their CNG equipment up for sale, there was limited interest in IEV Gas's assets even at the liquidation value based on the appraisal report. IEV Gas had received only one offer in respect of a single CNG equipment piece."

As IEV Gas is expected to continue to operate at a loss and will significantly drain the group's financial resources if the group chooses to continue with its operations, IEV Holdings has thus decided to stem the continuing losses by disposing of its entire equity interest in IEV Gas.

If the disposal goes through, IEV Holdings will discontinue its mobile natural gas sector's operations.

Amendment note: An earlier version of the story stated that the disposal of the shares would take place for a total consideration of 7.48 billion rupiah (S$677,554). On Thursday, IEV Holdings filed a corrigendum on the Singapore Exchange stating that the net price in the proposed transaction would be 960 million rupiah (S$87,000).