Reuters scoops news of big Indonesian petrochemicals M&A

Reuters broke news on Sept 25 that Indonesia’s Tri Polyta Indonesia, the country’s largest manufacturer of polypropylene resins, would acquire petrochemical firm PT Chandra Asri in a share-swap worth about $1.2 billion. The Reuters story on Saturday, with details of the indicative price per share and expected completion, attracted a lot of attention from analysts as well as bondholders of Chandra Asri, with several calling and emailing over the weekend for more detail. Bloomberg and Dow Jones did not match the story and had to wait until the company published an official announcement in the local newspapers on Sept 27. Tri Polyta’s shares jumped as much as 13 percent on Monday to their highest level since its listing. Brokers Mandiri, Bahana Securities and CLSA cited the story in daily research notes to clients, while the Reuters story was picked up by media including the Jakarta Globe and the Jakarta Post.