Antam to issue $350m bonds to finance Halmahera project

Publicly listed mining company PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) plans to issue rupiah-denominated bonds worth up to US$350 million and bank loans worth up to US$650 million to finance the company?s ferronickel project in Buli, East Halmahera in North Maluku, Bisnis Indonesia reported Wednesday.

An informed source said that Antam would soon name its financial advisor as well as a consortium of banks which would be involved in the project financing.

Antam?s corporate secretary Bimo Budi Satriyo confirmed that the sources for the funding for theferronickel project would include the issuance of bonds and bank loans. But, he said the composition of the funding sources had not been fixed.

A source said that a consortium of several banks including Bank Mandiri, Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, and Standard Chartered Bank had won the tender to provide loans for the nickel project.

Antam?s FeNi Halmahera project is a key nickel project located at Buli, East Halmahera, North Molucca. The project incorporates the operations of nickel ore mining and the development of ferronickel plant with total capacity of 27,000 tons of nickel in ferronickel. With an estimated project cost of US$1.6 billion, the project will further increase Antam?s value and is expected to be operational in 2014.

Early this year, Antam signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state electricity company PLN to provide electricity for the project. Antam also signed a MoU with PT Hutama Karya to develop residential and supporting facilities for the project. (*)