Govt asks Antam management to give personal guarantees

The government has asked the board of directors of the state owned general mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) to provide personal guarantees to ensure that the company?s decision place its three smelting plants as collateral of the loan that would be obtained from Germany?s IKB Hermes would not be abused.

Roes Aryawijaya, the deputy of State Minister for State Enterprises, said in Jakarta over the weekend that the government as the majority shareholder in the publicly listed general mining company had the rights to ask a guarantee from the company?s management to ensure that the surrender of the company?s assets as loan collateral would not inflict loss to the state.

Antam earlier said it would surrender its three ferro nickel processing plants ? FeNi I, FeNi II and FeNi III -- as collateral for the repayment of its debts worth US$360 million to be obtained from Germany?s IKB Hermes.

Aryawijaya did not unveil what kind of guarantees sought by the government from the company?s management. But sources earlier said that the board of directors was required to place their personal assets as a guarantee that the collateral would not be misused.

According to Antam, the disbursement of the credits, which would be used to finance the construction of third nickel refinery plant FeNi III was, however, still waited for the result of the feasibility study of the new plant which was now being conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.(*)