Bakrie seeks funds to finance C. Java power plant project

JSX-listed firm Bakrie& Brothers through its subsidiary PT. Bakrie Power is seeking to raise US$220 million funds to finance development of the 1320-MW Tanjung Jati A coal-fired power plant in Central Java, a company official was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying.

Bakrie?s director of finance Yunita Rohali said that the company has 20 percent stake in the US$1.4 billion project with Japanese company Tomen Corporation also having substantial interest in the project.

Yunita said Bakrie has invited four financial advisors from Japan, Malaysia and Europe to handle the project?s financing scheme. Yunita did not say when the Tanjung jati A project is expected to commence.

The Tanjung Jati A project was initially planned to be developed by Bakrie in partnership with one of Soeharto?s daughters years ago, Tomen and Britain's National Power but it along with many other power projects was halted due to financial crises that hit Indonesia in 1997.

While many of the owners of suspended projects took legal actions against PLN and Indoenesian government, Tanjung Jati A owners did not take such action after PLN promised to allow them to resume the project once the crisis was over and the domestic demand for power picked up again. (*)