Antam denies plan to bid for KPC

PT Aneka Tambang, an Indonesian state-owned gold and nickel miner, said it has no plans to bid for a stake in PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), the country's second-biggest coal miner, Bloomberg reported.

Bisnis Indonesia reported earlier today that Aneka may bid for a stake in Kaltim Prima, using a loan from Bank Mandiri, citing an official it didn't name.

"The potential loan from Mandiri is not to purchase KPC, but for a ferronickel III expansion project in South East Sulawesi province," said Cameron Tough, a company spokesman, in a telephone interview. "We are focused on the project," he said.

To help fund the project, Bank Mandiri, the country's biggest bank by assets, earlier said it agreed to lend Antam as much as US$150 million. Antam will provide another $72 million, mainly from its cash holdings.

Under Indonesian banking laws, Antam won't be able to use the money for any purpose other than what it was given for.

Antam, Southeast Asia's second-biggest publicly traded miner, produced 10,302 tons of ferronickel in 2001. It is expected to boost production capacity to 26,000 tons a year from 11,000 tons, when its new smelter is completed.

Rio Tinto Group and BP Plc own KPC and were obliged by law to sell a 51 percent stake to local investors by last year.

Coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam is offered to buy 20 percent and the remaining 31 percent is offered to two companies owned by East Kalimantan province.

``To my understanding, unless there has been a change today, Aneka Tambang has no plan to acquire KPC,'' Tough said.

``We did a due diligence last year, but we decided against taking interest in KPC.''(*)