Bumi Resources declined attributing losses beyond falling prices for coal and derivatives; the company lies at the heart of a fierce boardroom battle at Bumi PLC, the London owner of 29% of the Indonesian coal miner, formed in 2011 when Indonesia’s powerful Bakrie Group folded its mining properties into a shell with U.K. financier Nat Rothschild.
The courtship between Rothschild, scion of a centuries’ old dynasty and Aburizal Bakrie, one of Indonesia’s biggest tycoons, was brief. The Bakrie Group and Rothschild soon began arguing bitterly—and in public—over Bumi Resources management, until the Bakrie Group asked to buy back its shares amid Rothschild’s resignation from the board; Bumi PLC went on to launch a probe into financial irregularities at Bumi Resources.
The loss could complicate or delay the Bakrie Group’s plans to buy its shares back. Bumi Resources shares plunged more than 50% last year, and since regained amid hopes they would be returned to the Bakrie Group, which is already $4 billion in debt.
