Reuters breaks news on two big Indonesian telecoms deals

Anyone wanting the inside running on deal activity in Indonesia’s telecoms sector last week really needed a Reuters screen. First, shares in Indonesias Indosat jumped as much as 5 percent to their highest level in six months after Reuters broke news late on Oct 12 that the countrys No.2 telecommunications firm plans to sell 14,000 telecom towers to raise about $1.4 billion in coming months. The Reuters story revealed who was advising Indosat and possible bidders such as Telkom, and pushed the firm to admit it was considering a sale. Then shares in Indonesias Bakrie Telecom fell as much as 4 percent on Oct 13 after Reuters broke news that the countrys No.2 CDMA operator will buy rival TelkomFlexi, in a share swap deal worth up to $1 billion. Telkom, which owns TelkomFlexi, the nations No.1 CDMA provider, has been talking to Bakrie Telecom about a possible deal for some time, but no details had previously emerged. The Reuters story showed Bakrie Telecom will undertake a rights issue to swap shares for Telkoms CDMA assets by December. Bakrie Telecom shares fell as much as 4 percent within minutes of the Reuters story, before ending steady in a firm Jakarta market. The stock dropped 4 percent the following day as investors worried about the rights issue plan. Both the Reuters stories attracted a lot of attention from analysts, traders and journalists, with rivals including Bloomberg and Dow Jones either forced to pick us up or follow up later. Several clients contacted the Reuters reporters seeking more details and expressing their appreciation as well as mentioning the articles in their daily research notes to clients.