LONDON (Reuters) - Coal miner Bumi Plc (>> Bumi PLC) set in motion the first part of a plan to separate from Indonesia's Bakrie family, signing a $501 million agreement to sell a minority stake in Jakarta-listed Bumi Resources (>> PT Bumi Resources Tbk) to the Bakries.

The agreement, which is subject to independent shareholder approval, is conditional a deal involving the Bakries selling their 23.8 percent interest in Bumi Plc.

Bumi Plc (>> Bumi PLC) was co-founded by financier Nat Rothschild and Indonesia's influential Bakrie family. But Bumi Plc and the Bakries have been seeking to part ways after two years of boardroom battles and a probe into financial irregularities.

In the second part of the deal, Samin Tan, Bumi Plc's outgoing chairman, has agreed to buy the Bakries' stake in Bumi Plc through Indonesia's Borneo Lumbung Energy & Metal Tbk (>> PT Borneo Lumbung Energy & Metal Tbk), a company he controls. That deal will take his stake in Bumi to 47.6 percent.

Bumi Plc said on Thursday that funding details of the deal were yet to be finalised.

"More needs to be done before we are able to present a comprehensive package for shareholders to consider," the Company's senior independent non-executive director Julian Horn-Smith said. He said this included finalising arrangements covering how the funds will be transferred to close the deal.

Bumi Plc said its Vallar Investment subsidiary entered the sale and purchase agreement to sell the Bakries its 29.2 percent interest in Bumi Resources for $501 million in cash. The company said the current market value of the stake was $314 million.

A general meeting for independent shareholders to vote on the deal is planned for the Autumn, Bumi Plc said.

Rothschild, who owns a 14.8 percent stake in Bumi Plc and whose relationship with Bumi Plc's board and the Bakries has soured, has criticised the latest separation plan for its treatment of minority shareholders.

Horn-Smith conceded that the company needed to ensure the interests of independent shareholders are protected.

Shares in Bumi Plc have been suspended since April after irregularities found in the accounts of a key subsidiary forced it to delay its full-year results.

(Reporting by Sarah Young; editing by Kate Holton and Jane Merriman)

By Sarah Young