PGN plans to sell $350 million bonds

State gas utility PT Perushaaan Gas Negara (PGN) will sell as much as US$350 million of 10-year bonds by October, its second overseas sale this year to raise money for expansion, The Jakarta Post and the Bisnis Indonesia newspapers reported in their Friday edition.

?We have informed investors that bought our bonds last time about this sale plan,? PGN?s president director WMP Simanjuntak said in Jakarta on Thursday.

The bonds may be sold between March and October, he said.

PGN sold $125 million of bonds on Feb. 13, after cutting the sale from an initial target of $150 million.

The gas distribution monopoly is planning to build a 450-kilometer pipeline linking Grissik in South Sumatra province to Medan in the north. The company has said it wants to increase natural gas sales to 600 million cubic feet a day (MMCFD) in 2006 and 900 MMCFD by 2009.

Standard & Poor?s rates the company?s long-term foreign currency debt B+, four levels below investment grade and one level higher than the Indonesia?s sovereign-rating of B. (*)