Bumi shares leap as Bakries propose split Bumi, the controversial coal company, could be unwound under an audacious proposal from Indonesia's influential Bakrie family to buy back Bumi's Indonesian coal assets, which has prompted a near-30 per cent jump in the London-listed group's shares. As the board of Bumi prepared to meet in Singapore to discuss its future, the company said it had received a proposal from the Bakrie Group to acquire all of Bumi plc's operating assets - a 29 per cent stake in PT Bumi Resources and an 85 per cent stake in Berau Coal Energy - in exchange for cash and the cancellation of Bakrie Group's 23.8 per cent stake in Bumi plc. Concerns about corporate governance and the Bakries" extensive debts have driven a near 90 per cent fall in the value of Bumi shares since a £14 peak in April 2011, when the financier Nat Rothschild completed a deal to reverse the family's Indonesian coal-mining assets into Vallar, his London-listed shell company. The group has come to epitomise the risks investors face with emerging market resource groups, even if they have the City's stamp of approval via a London listing. Bumi shares rose more than 29 per cent to 240.2p in morning trading in London. The controversy around Bumi has come to a head after the plc's board said last month it had hired a law firm to investigate alleged financial irregularities at its Indonesia-listed affiliate PT Bumi. Under the proposal, made by a Bakrie vehicle called Long Haul Holdings, the family would unwind their entire relationship with Bumi plc in a three-part deal, freeing themselves from the restrictions of a London listing. In a letter to Bumi's independent directors, dated October 10, the Bakrie Group proposes exchanging its Bumi plc shares for 10.3 per cent of PT Bumi, worth about $155m based on market prices this week. The Bakries would then buy the remaining 18.9 per cent of PT Bumi held by the plc back from the parent for $278.3m in cash before the end of the year. Finally, the Bakries have offered to pay about $947m in cash, before the end of June next year, to buy Bumi plc's 85 per cent stake in Berau, another Indonesian coal company. The deal - if completed - would sever the London-listed group's tied with Indonesia and the Bakries, leaving the vehicle floated by financier Nat Rothschild as a cash shell. The total value of the Bakrie proposal, at about $1.4bn, is almost double Bumi plc's market value in London as of Wednesday night - with shareholders on all sides of the dispute keen to find a way to restore what they believe is the intrinsic value of the company's significant coal assets. But analysts say that the Bakries" chances of pulling off this deal will depend on pricing and their ability to obtain financing at a time when their extensive business empire is already struggling under the burden of big debts. Bumi plc's board may also not want to unwind fully the deal which created the group. People close to Bumi's thinking have previously said that the company could refocus its strategy around Berau, rather than shed its Indonesian assets entirely. "The deal would completely disassociate Bumi plc from the Bakries and PT Bumi," said Richard Knights, analyst at Liberum. The second offer is more controversial considering the plc already has control of Berau ... which is materially less leveraged than PT Bumi, is lower cost and has a similarly impressive growth profile. The announcement came as the board of Bumi plc met in Singapore on Thursday to try to find a way to reverse the collapse in the group's share price. Tensions surrounding the company and its backers have been further heightened after the Bakrie family, whose patriarch Aburizal Bakrie wants to stand for the presidency of Indonesia in 2014, claimed on Thursday that their phones and computers had been hacked.