Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Many quarters have urged state-owned steel firm PT Krakatau Steel (KS) to explain to the public its Initial Public Offering (IPO) where it was alleged to have sold its share at lower price.

House of Representatives (DPR) Speaker Marzuki Alie said the ongoing polemics over PT Krakatau Steel (KS)`s initial public offering (IPO) should be solved soon.

Marzuki told the press at the parliament building here on Wednesday that one of the ways to solve the polemics was to ask explanations from PT KS management and the state-owned enterprises (BUMN) minister regarding the questions over the sale of the firm`s shares.

"That should be done so that the problem would be solved immediately," the House Speaker said.

He said that the sale price of KS stake which was set at Rp850 per share was actually already a fair one. What needed to be questioned was the allocation of the share.

The IPO of KS still sparked controversies. Some said that the price set by the government at Rp850 per share was too low. However, the government and the underwriter were firm in their opinions that the price was set based on the reasonable valuation.

Capital Market observer Dany Daruri said that the government had better explain to the public the IPO of KS`s 20 percent shares. This is to prevent a process that could cause losses to the state but on the other hand benefit others a lot from this process.

"Many matters that needed to be explained. It included the fact that the IPO was carried out in short time, the price was too low, the shares were not available in the market, even if many wanted to buy it," Deny said.

Deny said that with such a condition there could be a black market involved in the IPO process. In a black market process, usually the underwriters had a deal with share holders who in this case is the government or the BUMN minister.

In order to eliminate the black market, one of the ways that could be taken is to raise share prices. "This could still be carried out until November 9, because at present it is still the stage of payments, not yet in the recording period. Raising the price will of course deal a blow on the black market," he said.(*)