Bumi set to seek loans for refinancing
Saturday, August 26 2006 - 12:05 AM WIB
Bumi?s financial director Eddie J. Soebari said Friday the company would use the service of Credit Suisse to secure funds either by selling bonds or borrowing loans.
?We will possibly secure more than US$800 million for refinancing. We will probably sell bonds with coal assets as collateral,? he said.
Bumi needs US$800 million in fund for refinancing after it dropped its plan to sell US$3.2 billion worth of coal mining assets to PT Borneo Lumbung Energi.
He said the loan which had the maturity of three months and had been extended would be due in September of this year.
In a further development, the Capital Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) said it would ask the management of Bumi Resources to clarify the company?s move to drop its plan to sell its subsidiaries PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC) and PT Arutmin to PT Borneo Lumbung Energi.
Bumi said in a statement earlier that the company and PT Borneo Lumbung Energi had agreed not continue the process of selling coal mining assets owned by PT KPC and PT Arutmin Indonesia to comply with the sale and purchase deal signed by the two companies.
Bumi said that the company and Borneo signed the sale and purchase agreement on March 16, 2006.
As the divestment plan has been dropped, the purchase and sale agreement is no longer effective, the statement said.
Bumi added that the company had received unofficial offering from potential investors, including foreign ones.
The proposals that they have submitted were more targeted at minority share ownership, with shares offered at reasonable price. "The calculation on the value (of the shares) will be announced to the public as soon as possible to comply with the existing regulation on transparency of information,? Bumi said. (*)