CP Prima has appointed publicly listed construction firm PT Truba Alam Manunggal and state-owned firm PT Wijaya Karya to assess the condition of Dipasena's production infrastructure and determine whether any upgrading is needed, Mahar added.

CP Prima officially announced its bid for Dipasena late last month and appointed Barclays Capital and BNP Paribas as its financial advisers.

Asset Management, a state-sanctioned agency that controls assets taken over by the government after the Asian financial crisis of 1997-98, including Dipasena, will officially

put the company on offer again on May 25.

Dipasena boasts 186,000 hectares of shrimp ponds run collaboratively with some 11,000 local farmers.

CP Prima, whose shareholders include Thai agribusiness giant Charoen Pokphand, will be competing with other bidders, including the Laranda Consortium and PT Kemila International Holding.

Laranda is also a global shrimp producer, with operations in the Philippines and the Middle East, while Kemila is reported to have received financial backing from the Fund Asia Group.

Asset Management requires investors interested in bidding for Dipasena to have experience in the aquaculture business and be willing to invest a minimum of 1.7 trillion rupiah (Bt6.7 billion) to develop Dipasena's shrimp farms.

In September 2005, Asset Management awarded an exclusive option to PT Recapital Advisers to take over Dipasena in return for a promise to inject fresh capital and settle the company's loans to local farmers by March 1 of this year.

Recapital was then stripped of the option after failing to meet the deadline.

During its heyday, Dipasena was one of the biggest shrimp producers in the world, with output amounting to some 19,854 tonnes worth US$167 million (Bt5.77 billion) in 1996.

The government took control of Dipasena from Gajah Tunggal Group tycoon Sjamsul Nursalim in part settlement of his Rp28-trillion debt to the state following the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis.