Antam rumored to cancel raising loans from IKB Hermes
Friday, March 28 2003 - 03:53 AM WIB
State owned general mining firm PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) may have cancelled its plan to raise euro-denominated loans from German bank IKB Hermes for the construction of its third nickel smelting plant due to the strengthening of the euro against the U.S. dollar, Bisnis Indonesia daily quoted a source as saying Thursday.
?Antam may have cancelled its plan, and will likely use loans from Bank Mandiri and its own funds for the project,? the source told the paper.
The company had initially planned to seek US$ 240 million-$255 million in loan from IKB Hermes to finance its third nickel plant, FeNi III, in Pomalaa, Central Sulawesi. It had also planned to borrow $75 million from state-owned Bank Mandiri for the project.
Antam president director Dedi Aditya Sumanegara declined to comment on the alleged plan not to raise loans, in the form of export credit, from IKB Hermes.
?I am too busy to comment on that matter,? he told Bisnis Indonesia. (*)