Successor to Bumi hit with £4.65m fine

LONDON-LISTED coal-miner Asia Resource Minerals has been hit with a near-£5m fine by City watchdogs only weeks after financier Nat Rothschild walked away from a fight to regain control.

The firm, formerly known as Bumi, has been forced to pay £4.65m by the Financial Conduct Authority for breaching listing rules.

The main focus of the charge are three transactions between companies within Bumi’s subsidiary the Berau Group, and entities connected with former Bumi director Rosan Roeslani, who left in early 2013.

The FCA said the company had inadequate systems and controls to comply with its obligations as a listed company. It was also found to have failed to identify transactions valued at just over £8m between companies linked to Roeslani.

The fine is the latest crisis at the coal-miner, whose operations are based in Indonesia.

Bumi was created in 2011 when Rothschild’s vehicle Vallar raised £700m and bought stakes in Indonesian coal companies Berau and Bumi Resources, controlled by the billionaire Bakrie family.

But Bumi was hit by tumbling commodity prices, boardroom scraps and alleged fraud. It split from the Bakries in an acrimonious divorce where it sold back mining assets in 2013 and was renamed Asia Resource Minerals.

A case to reclaim missing millions from Roeslani is ongoing.

Georgina Philippou, the FCA’s acting director of enforcement and market oversight, said the company ‘should have been alive to the need for robust systems and controls to clearly identify related- party transactions.

‘It fell below the standards we expect; the failings were serious and went on for two years.’

But the company received a 30pc reduction on the fine because it settled at an early stage. ARM’s annual meeting will be at the end of the month. shares are suspended at 36.75p.