Indika hopes financial close of Cirebon power project early 2017

By Thomas Sembiring

IDX-listed integrated energy company PT Indika Energy Tbk expected financial close of a 1x1,000 MW coal-fired power plant in Cirebon, West Java, to be reached by early next year at the latest.

?God Willing, we hope it would be by end of this year if possible. But at the latest, early next year,? said Indika President Director M. Arsjad Rasjid to Petromindo.com on Thursday.

Indika owns a 25 percent stake in PT Cirebon Energi Prasarana (CEPR), which plans to develop the power plant project. Other partners in the consortium are Marubeni Corporation, Samtan Co. Ltd, Korea Midland Power Co. Ltd, and Chubu Electric Power Co. Inc.

CEPR President Director Heru Dewanto said on November 9 that financial close was expected to be reached in December as the Ministry of Finance was set to soon issue the so-called business feasibility guarantee (or SJKU) required by the creditors.

About 80 percent of the power plant project, which is an expansion of the existing 1x660 MW Cirebon coal-fired power plant, will be financed by creditors including JBIC, Export-Import Bank of Korea, and Nippon Export and Investment Insurance.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak