Bakrie family withdraws request to remove Rothschild

The Bakrie family and its business partner Samin Tam have withdrawn their request for an extraordinary general meeting to remove financier Nat Rothschild and four other directors from Bumi’s board.

In a statement released on 14 February, the Bakries and Tan, who together control 29.9% of the Indonesian coalminer’s voting shares, said the withdrawal was in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.

However, they added that they still want to make changes to Bumi’s board and that a number of independent directors have backed their proposal to nominate Tan as the company’s chairman.

These changes will be voted on at Bumi’s next board meeting on 26 March.

Earlier this month, the Bakries and Tan, who also own 47.6% of the group’s ordinary stake, demanded a shareholder meeting to oust five directors from the board, in a bid to tighten their control over the London-listed company.

However, they later softened their stance. In a statement released on 11 February, the Bakrie Group, which is the family’s holding company, said: "We see the circumstances are changing since we requested the general meeting.

“We were unaware that Nat had resigned from another board to focus more on Bumi and that our letter would be perceived as a personal attack against his reputation.”

Rothschild, a scion of the Rothschild banking family, owns about 11% of Bumi’s equity shares and currently serves as the company’s co-chairman. In November he called for a “radical cleaning up” of corporate governance at the coalminer.

The Bakrie Group was established in 1942 by Achmad Bakrie. The business, which has interests in agriculture, shipping and mining, is currently headed by second-generation Nirwan and his family.

Rothschild partnered with the Bakries in 2010, when his investment company Vallar bought a stake in Bumi Resources, the coal company controlled by the Indonesian family. Vallar was later renamed Bumi.