Did Temasek utilise its stakes to fix phone prices?

Did Temasek utilise its stakes to fix phone prices?

Did Temasek holdings Pte use its stakes in Indonesia’s two biggest mobile phone operators to fix prices? Indonesia’s competition regulator Chairman Mohammad Iqbal has to decide if these allegations are true. Temasek manages more than $100 billion of assets for Singapore’s finance ministry. The investment behemoth owns indirect stakes in PT Telekomunikasi Selular, Indonesia’s biggest mobile phone operator and smaller rival PT Indosat, which account for more than 75 percent of the country’s 80 million mobile users.

A worker’s union filed a complaint against Temasek. The complaint stated that Temasek was fixing call rates through its stakes in Telkomsel and Indosat. The union eventually dropped its claim but the competition regular decided to continue probing into the price fixing allegation.

“The allegations against Temasek are baseless and without merit,” Temasek spokeswoman Myrna Thomas said.

Temasek owns about 54 percent of Singapore telecommunications limited which has a 35 percent stake in Telkomsel. The company further owns 40 percent of Indosat.

“We have demonstrated that Temasek is not involved in the investment or operational decisions of either Singtel or ST Telemedia’s respective investee companies, Telkomsel and Indosat,” Thomas said.

PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia owns 65 percent of Telkomsel and the Indonesian government has a 51.2 percent stake.