The Supreme Court on Friday upheld a ruling by the nation's anti-monopoly body that found Temasek Holdings Pte, a Singapore-based investment firm, guilty of violating the antitrust law.
The earlier ruling by the Business Competition Supervisory Agency (KPPU) said Temasek had breached anti-monopoly laws by indirectly owning shares in both PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel) and PT Indosat -- in a move that could have been used to help fix prices.
However, the decision may have little impact, as Temasek subsidiary Singapore Technologies Telemedia (STT) Pte sold its entire stake in Indosat to Qatar Telecom (QTel) in June in a deal worth US$1.8 billion.
Temasek now only indirectly owns Telkomsel, the nation's largest mobile-phone operator, through Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (SingTel), another of its subsidiaries. It controls a 54 percent stake in SingTel, which in turn owns 35 percent of Telkomsel.
Temasek and its units have all denied any wrongdoing, and said they would fight all the way to prove their innocence, including possibly taking the case before an international arbitration.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court also scrapped two stipulations from the earlier ruling prohibiting Temasek from selling its holdings to affiliate companies and restricting each buyer to a maximum 10 percent stake.
"The ruling by the Central Jakarta Court applies, except for point number six, which says each share buyer is limited to no more than 10 percent and that buyers must not be associated with Temasek Holdings," said Supreme Court spokesperson Nurhadi Jakarta on Friday.
According to Bloomberg, that should remove any legal obstacle to the sale of the Indosat stake to QTel.
"There shouldn't be any problem now with the stake sale (because of the decision to ease those restrictions)," Ananda Lukmansyah Sjarkawi, an analyst at PT Andalan Artha Advisindo Sekuritas, was quoted as saying by Bloomberg.
During a visit to Indonesia last June, QTel chairman Sheikh Abdullah Al-Thani said the divestment of the stake was still subject to a decision by the Supreme Court.
Temasek itself is still undecided on whether take the case to arbitration.
"Temasek Holdings is disappointed with the verdict announced today by the Indonesian Supreme Court," said Goh Yong Siang, Temasek's managing director for international and strategic relations.
