Bukit Asam will launch IPO this year as scheduled

The South Sumatra based coal producer PT Tambang Batu Bara Bukit Asam will launch its initial public offering (IPO) this year as scheduled, Neraca reported on Tuesday.

The state owned coal mining company's president Sunardi said in Jakarta on Monday that the preparation to go public had been completed and that the company's readiness had also been confirmed by the French bank Banque Paribas, which recently carried out a survey on the company's IPO plan.

"We have been actually ready for IPO since 1997 but we had to delay the plan due to the economic crisis which hit the country during the year," he said.

According to Sunardi, the company's dividend payment to the state had increased sharply in recent years thanks to a significant increase in the company's revenues both from domestic and overseas sales.

He said that in 1999, the dividend paid to the government reached Rp 346.8 billion (US$1 = Rp 8,500), or an increase of over 600 percent from the figure in 1995. The revenues also increased sharply to Rp 1.83 trillion in 1999 from about Rp 545 billion in 1995.

In 1999, the revenues from the domestic sales surged by 47 percent to Rp 1.4 trillion over the previous year while the revenues from exports increased by 89 percent to Rp 430 billion during the same period. (*)