Energi Mega Persada reduces debt
Thursday, July 2 2015 - 01:12 AM WIB
IDX-listed oil and gas company PT Energi Mega Persada Tbk. (EMP) said that it has made further progress in reducing debt burden, saying that it has repaid more than US$40 million of the loan facility obtained from Mitsubishi & Japex.
The company said in a statement Wednesday that from December 2013 to June 2015, EMP has successfully reduced its outstanding debt by more than $279 million.
?In the past 5 years, EMP has steadily increased its production rate and gas price. Our main focus now is to deleverage our balance sheet which is expected to reduce interest cost going forward,? EMP CEO Imam Agustino said in the statement.
?Additionally, we have successfully refinanced some of our loan with the new one at lower interest rate. Consequently, as per 31 March 2015, EMP?s debt to equity ratio improved to 0.77x (from 0.82x in December 2013). Similarly, EMP?s interest coverage ratio (EBITDA to interest cost) also got better to 7.47x as per 31 March 2015 (from 4.76x in December 2013),? added EMP Director Didit Ratam.
EMP is an upstream oil and gas company which produced around 11,718 barrels oil per day and 218 million cubic feet gas per day throughout the first three months in year 2015. As per March 2015, the company operates proved and probable reserves of 13.71 million barrels of oil and 867 billion cubic feet of gas.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak