Rothschild secures capital in Bumi battle Financier Nat Rothschild on Monday said he had secured $342.5m in new equity capital for Bumi, the FTSE miner, as investors line up behind his proposal to restructure the group. Mr Rothschild made the announcement amid a scandal surrounding the probe into alleged financial irregularity at mining companies part-owned by Bumi. The Bakries, the Indonesian family that are big shareholders in Bumi, claimed at the weekend that documents used as the basis for the investigation had been stolen, hacked or doctored or all three. Bumi was created in 2011 when the Bakries" Indonesian coal-mining assets were reversed into Vallar, a London-listed shell company created by Mr Rothschild. But the Bakries and Mr Rothschild have turned from allies into enemies. Shares in Bumi have fallen about 80 per cent from their high last year. Both Mr Rothschild and the Bakries have submitted proposals to restructure Bumi - both of which boil down to a divorce. The board meets this week to evaluate them. The Bakrie plan would see the family buy Bumi's operating assets and turn the group back into a cash shell. Mr Rothschild's plan is aimed at focusing Bumi on one part of its portfolio of mines. The financier said he had informed the Bumi board last week that 11 investors had come forward to support his proposal. These included each of the five largest independent institutional shareholders: Abu Dhabi Investment Council; Schroders Investment Management; Standard Life Investments; Taube Hodson Stonex; and Artemis Investment Management. He said this was "clear evidence that the proposal delivers far superior value for the company and its independent shareholders than does the Bakrie proposal." His plan is backed by mining entrepreneur Robert Friedland, the billionaire who founded Ivanhoe Mines, and Hashim Djojohadikusomo, the Indonesian businessman and brother of politician Prabowo Subianto. Mr Rothschild said that together with his own commitment of $75m, the non-binding letters of support from these investors represented a total of $342.5m in funds available for new equity. He said his understanding was that "the thresholds required by the Bakries to see their proposal succeed cannot now be reached." Bumi's board will also discuss the independent probe by London law firm Macfarlanes into allegations made by a whistleblower of irregularities at Bumi's two holdings, Jakarta-listed coal miners PT Bumi Resources, which the Bakries control, and Berau Coal Energy. A statement released by the Bakries said that documents used as the basis of Macfarlanes" preliminary report "were, in some cases, stolen and/or the subject of illegal hacking." It said these documents were then "doctored" to give a purposely misleading impression. They said they intended to "report their findings to the UK police and other regulatory authorities while the Indonesian police continue to investigate the hacking complaint made in that jurisdiction." In his statement, Mr Rothschild said that if there had been any reason to doubt the authenticity of the documents forming the basis of the investigation, these would have been shared with Mcfarlanes "and the inquiry would have ended."