LONDON - In the latest twist in a long-running dispute about control of the coal producer Bumi, its chairman, Samin Tan, agreed on Thursday to buy the stake owned by the Bakrie family of Indonesia, a step opposed by the financier Nathaniel Rothschild.
Mr. Tan agreed to pay $223 million for the Bakrie family’s 23.8 percent stake in Bumi, which is based in Indonesia but listed on the London Stock Exchange. The purchase would make Mr. Tan the biggest shareholder in Bumi with a 47.6 percent holding. Mr. Rothschild owns about 15 percent of the company.
Mr. Rothschild, the former co-chairman of the hedge fund Atticus Capital and member of the British Rothschild banking dynasty, co-founded Bumi with the Bakrie family, one of Indonesia’s wealthiest, in a $3 billion deal in 2011. The idea was to create a giant in the coal and iron ore market by adding to existing assets in Indonesia, Mauritania and Yemen through acquisitions.
But the global economic slowdown hurt Bumi’s business and a boardroom fight over control and strategy followed. Bumi’s share price slumped. Mr. Rothschild, who fell out with the Bakries over some suspicious transactions and an investigation into suspected accounting irregularities, has since said it was a mistake to team up with the Bakrie family for the venture.
After a failed attempt to regain control of Bumi in February, Mr. Rothschild started to work on unwinding his links with the Bakries. If it goes ahead, Mr. Tan’s purchase announced on Thursday would end the Bakrie family’s direct link with Bumi, but Mr. Rothschild criticized the deal for being unfair to existing shareholders, who he contends should have the right to buy the stake instead.
“Moreover, the primary source of Bumi’s difficulties over the past three years has been the concentrated control by the Bakrie Concert Party, which included Samin Tan,†Mr. Rothschild said in a statement. “This deal does not change that.â€
As part of the deal agreed with Mr. Tan, the Bakries would also buy back a minority stake in the coal company Bumi Resources from Bumi for more than $500 million. Mr. Rothschild argued that this would deprive minority investors of any upside just as the market for coal improves.
The fight for control at Bumi highlighted the issue of the protection of minority shareholders.
On Thursday, the Association of British Insurers, whose members have more than 1.8 trillion pounds ($2.7 trillion) of funds under management as institutional investors, called for stricter rules for companies with majority shareholders that apply for a listing on the London Stock Exchange.
Majority shareholders should be held responsible for the content of the share sale prospectus and be clearer about what relationship they expect to have with the company and minority shareholders, the group said in a report published on its Web site.
The report comes after some investors warned that share listings of companies where one investor keeps a large stake, including Bumi and the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation, which is controlled by billionaire businessmen from Kazakhstan, could harm the reputation of London as a financial center.
