JAKARTA - INDONESIA'S Sampoerna family withdrew its bid to buy Kiani Kertas because it could not agree with the largest creditor of the pulpmaker on purchase terms.

　　The withdrawal leaves Singapore's United Fiber System (Unifiber) in the running to buy the mill, reported Bloomberg News.

　　The Sampoerna family rejected a request by Bank Mandiri, the creditor, to 'reconsider its decision', the latter said in a statement to the Jakarta Stock Exchange yesterday.

　　On Tuesday, sources close to Indonesian billionaire Putra Sampoerna told The Straits Times that he was 'close to clinching a deal to buy the Kalimantan pulp mill'.

　　'Nothing has been signed or agreed on with Mandiri. There is an ongoing discussion and the transaction must make commercial sense before it can go through,' the sources said.

　　The Jakarta Post newspaper on Monday had quoted Mandiri's spokesman as saying that the bank favoured Mr Sampoerna's offer because he had agreed to pay back the debt in full. Unifiber's proposal involved a series of instalments.

　　But the bank left the door open for Unifiber to submit another offer, which would allow the bank to 'assess where the funds come from, and Unifiber's commitment in paying for the offer'.

　　But now the withdrawal may bring back Unifiber, whose bid was rejected by Mandiri on Jan 6, into the reckoning.

　　Mandiri, Indonesia's largest bank, has been trying to find a buyer for the pulp firm to recover the money it spent buying Kiani's debt in August 2002.

　　Kiani was previously controlled by Mr Bob Hasan, then a prominent businessman and golf partner of former Indonesian president Suharto.

　　The Sampoerna family on Jan 8 raised its offer to buy Kiani to US$401 million (S$659.2 million), from US$370 million.

　　It was willing to spend US$201 million in cash to pay off Kiani's debt at Mandiri, and US$200 million to buy Kiani shares.

　　Last Thursday, Unifiber said it had arranged funds to buy Kiani and pledged to pay its debt in the first quarter.

　　Last month, Indonesian businessman Wisanggeni Lauw's Kingsclere Finance signed a conditional agreement to buy Kiani from shareholders.

　　Unifiber was to take over the shares from Kingsclere under a separate agreement.

　　Unifiber, meanwhile, is bidding for an asset reported to be worth at least US$600 million as compared with its own market value of S$506 million.

　　The mill, one of Indonesia's largest, can produce 525,000 tonnes of pulp yearly.

　　Operations are slowly reviving after management was taken over by Unifiber late last year, after earlier stopping for lack of working capital.

《The Straits Times》