Freeport allowed to use assets as bank collateral
Friday, January 23 2004 - 02:46 AM WIB
The approval was given during the company?s extra-ordinary shareholders meeting, which was held in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Deputy Minister of State Owned Enterprises and Strategic Industries, Roes Aryawidjaya, said that the approval was given because the mining company had assured that the collaterals would not be used to raise banks loans for expansion purposes.
?The collateral will be used as an anticipation if the company needs to raise bank loan,? he was quoted as saying by the daily.
Freeport which is 81.28 percent owned by the New Orleans-based mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc and 9.36 percent by Indocopper Indvestama has outstanding loans of US$165 million. The loans are provided by both international and local banks.
Separately, Freeport?s Manager for Communication, Mindo Pangaribuan, said that the approval was a routine procedure that had to be followed by Freeport in raising banks loans. ?The last approval was given in 2001,? he added.
With such a collateral, Freeport will have the flexibility in raising the amount of banks loans to finance ongoing and future projects. (*)