ANTAM signs $160m credit facility with EximBank
Saturday, May 24 2014 - 01:03 AM WIB
IDX-listed state owned mining firm PT ANTAM (Persero) Tbk has signed a credit facility agreement worth US$160 million with state owned Indonesia EximBank to further finance the expansion of its ferronickel plant in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi.
ANTAM?s President Director Tato Miraza said the firm will immediately withdraw $100 million of the loan. The remaining $60 million will be withdrawn later.
The loan has a grace period of two years and a tenor of 10 years.
The firm is expanding the capacity of its Pomalaa ferronickel plant from between 18,000 and 20,000 tons to between 27,000 and 30,000 tons per year. The expansion project requires a total investment of $500 million-$600 million. In order to finance the project, at the end of 2011, the firm raised Rp 3 trillion funds through bond issuance, 80 of which were spent for the project. The firm has spent all the proceeds from the bond issuance, but the project has only been half completed. That?s why the firm is seeking loans from EximBank.
According to Antam, the works of the project are divided into eight packages. Only 40 percent of the packages have been completed.
The project was kicked off on Feb. 7, 2013 and is expected to carry out commissioning on electric furnace at the end of 2014 and commissioning on all facilities in 2015.
Editing by Johannes Simbolon