Antam may cancel rights issue plan

State-owned gold and nickel miner PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) can cancel its US$31 million rights issue plan, Bisnis Indonesia newspaper reported in its Wednesday edition.

?We may not go for rights issue, because we have other alternative sources of financing like export credit,? Antam president Deddy A. Sumanagara told the Bisnis on Tuesday at the office of state minister for state enterprises.

Still, negotiations are going on between the government and Antam, he said.

The paper, however, did not clearly say why the rights issue plan could be canceled.

Antam needs around US$220 million to finance the Tayan Alumina bauxite project in West Kalimantan.

Earlier, the publicly-listed Antam was considering to issue new shares (rights issue) and sell the government?s 14 percent stake simultaneously to meet the funding requirement.

Meanwhile, Antam said on Tuesday that its unaudited net profit for 2003 had increased by 20 percent on the back of higher commodity prices.

The publicly-listed company said net income rose to Rp 242.9 billion (US$28.57 million) last year from Rp 202.0 billion last year.(*)