Bumi (LSE:BUMI)
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A consortium led by PT Bumi Resources (BUMI.JK) signed an agreement late Monday to buy an additional 14% stake in gold miner PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, or PTNNT, for $493.64 million.

Heriyadi Rahmat, a director of the consortium called PT Multi Daerah Maju Bersaing, told reporters that the consortium is also interested in buying an additional 7% stake in the unit of the Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM), which has to be offered to local investors next year.

Monday's deal came after the Multi Daerah consortium last week concluded a purchase of a 10% stake in PTNNT for $391 million.

Bumi Resources, which has major interest in coal mining, owns a 99% stake in PT Multicapital, which in turn owns a 75% stake in Multi Daerah.

Analysts said Bumi could own 18% of PTNNT after the stake purchase. Its ownership in PTNNT could even increase to 23.25% if Multi Daerah succeeds in getting an additional 7% stake of PTNNT.

Newmont and its minority partner Sumitomo Corp. (8053.TO) are required by their contract with the Indonesian government to divest a total 51% of PTNNT to local buyers by 2010.

Analysts expect PTNNT, through its Batu Hijau copper-gold mine, to produce 206,385 metric tons of copper and 485,531 ounces of gold this year.

Bumi last week sold $300 million in convertible bonds and plans to issue another $300 million bonds later this year to finance its business expansion plans.

Analysts believe the $600 million in new funds will be used to help finance the acquisition of the PTNNT stakes.

"We see this (PTNNT acquisition) positively as we believe the deal is value-accretive, adding to around IDR300 per share to IDR475 per share of Bumi," CLSA said in its latest research.

CLSA said "there is further upside should another 7% stake in PTNNT, to be divested next year, is secured."

CLSA upgraded Bumi to outperform after its acquisition of PTNNT, with a target price of IDR3,375. Bumi's shares closed down 1.8% at IDR2,750 on Monday.

-By Deden Sudrajat, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; 62-21 39831277; I-Made.Sentana@dowjones.com