ICC Sentences PT Bumitama Gunajaya Agro to Pay IDR3 Billion for Delayed Notification.

Bandung (17/6) – Indonesia Competition Commission (ICC) has sentenced PT Bumitama Gunajaya Agro (PT BGA) to pay for a penalty of IDR3,000,000,000 (three billion rupiah) for having been legally and convincingly proven of making delayed notification of the acquisition of shares of PT Ladang Sawit Mas (PT NGO), PT Agriplus, and PT Hungarindo Persada (PT HP). The penalty was read out in a Commission Panel Hearing for the Reading Out of Decision held today at ICC’s Regional Office III of Bandung.

This case had its origin from a pre-investigation conducted by ICC on Alleged Violation of Article 29 of Law Number 5 of 1999 in conjunction with (juncto) Article 5 of Government Regulation Number 57 of 2010 committed by PT BGA in the acquisition transactions of PT LSM, PT Agriplus, and PT HP. PT BGA is a company engaged in the field of oil palm plantations and mills, in operation in three provinces, viz., Central Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, and Riau. Business Units of PT BGA consist of 68 (sixty eight) oil palm plantations in an area of 186,246 (one hundred and eighty-six thousand two hundred and forty-six) hectares and 15 (fifteen) palm oil mills.

There are three acquisition transactions whose case being brought before to the Commission Panel Hearing by ICC through Case under Register Number 08/KPPU-M/2022, viz., the acquisitions of PT LSM, PT Agriplus, and PT HP by PT BGA. ICC has found the following:

1. The acquisition of PT LSM by PT BGA came into effect on August 10, 2012 and it should have been notified on September 21, 2012. The transaction was just notified to ICC on May 6, 2021, consequently, it was 2,023 days (two thousand and twenty-three days) delayed.
2. The acquisition of PT Agriplus by PT BGA came into effect on April 12, 2017 and it should have been notified on May 25, 2017. The said transaction was just notified to ICC on March 31, 2021, consequently, it was 919 days (nine hundred and nineteen days) delayed.
3. The acquisition of PT HP by PT BGA came into effect on June 14, 2017 and it should have been notified on July 26, 2017. The said transaction was just notified to ICC on March 31, 2021, consequently, it was 881 days (eight hundred and eighty-one days) delayed.

Before handing down its decision, the Commission Panel took the matters including the Reported Party’s acknowledgment of the delay in making the notification and having good faith during the hearing proceedings into account. The Reported Party has never been declared guilty, either by virtue of a Decision that has had a permanent legal force (inkracht) for violating Law 5/1999. In deciding and imposing administrative penalty on every business competition case, the Commission Panel co-takes the references of all the Decisions of ICC into account.

Based on the mandatory notification provisions and various facts in the hearings, the Commission Panel decided that PT BGA had been legally and convincingly proven of violating Article 29 of Law No. 5 of 1999 in conjuction with (Jo.) Article 5 of Government Regulation No. 57 of 2010, and sentenced PT BGA to pay for a penalty of IDR 3,000,000,000 (three billion rupiah) and remit it into the state treasury by no later than 30 (thirty) days after the Decision has had a permanent legal force (inkracht).