Bumi in talks with CIC, Credit Suisse on plan to sell new shares

Indonesia-listed mining giant PT Bumi Resources is in talks with creditors including China Investment Corp., Credit Suisse AG and JPMorgan Chase Bank NA on a plan to sell shares to help repay debt, The Jakarta Post reported Thursday.

Bumi will raise Rp 4.6 trillion (1US$ = Rp 9.035) by selling 1.94 billion new shares at Rp 2,366 apiece, the company said. Bumi will almost quadruple its authorized share capital to Rp 38.75 trillion from Rp 10 trillion through a non-preemptive issue that bars participation of current shareholders.

?An increase in capital is necessary to go ahead with the non-preemptives,? Dileep Srivastava, Bumi?s head of investor relations, said in an e-mail. Raiffeisen Zentralbank Oesterreich AG is also a potential buyer of the issue, according to today?s statement. CIC, China?s sovereign wealth fund, bought $1.9 billion of debt from Bumi in September last year.

Bumi will buy an 80 percent stake in the parent of mining contractor PT Darma Henwa for $222 million, Srivastava said in January. The coal miner paid Rp 2.41 trillion for a 44 percent stake in Darma Henwa and Rp 1.3 trillion for an 84 percent stake in non-producing miner PT Pendopo Energi Batubara. The two acquisitions were announced last year. (*)