$197m loan to Ratelindo

$197m loan to Ratelindo

JAKARTA (JP): PT Radio Telephone Indonesia (Ratelindo), a
private firm operating fixed-cellular radio telephones will sign
today a US$197 million lending facilities.

The loans will be provided by 12 international banks including
Korea Development Bank, Bank of Taiwan, Fuji Bank, Keppel Bank of
Singapore, Chase Manhattan Bank and Dresdner Southeast Asia.

Around $75 million of the total loans will be guaranteed by
the United States' Exim Bank.

Ratelindo is 86.14 percent owned by PT Bakrie Electronics
Company (BEC) of the Bakrie Group and 12.86 percent by state-
owned PT Telkom. BEC is a joint-venture partly owned by the
Netherlands' PTT Telecom.

In April 1995, Ratelindo secured lending facilities amounting
to Rp 200 billion from 11 domestic banks. The loans were arranged
by the state-owned BNI 46.

The new $197 million loans are to be used to finance
Ratelindo's coverage expansion and customer service program.

People living far away from telephone cable infrastructures
are the major market for Ratelindo, which operates the cellular
digital radio telephones system.

Ratelindo which is supplied by Hughes Network System of the
United States to construct the project, currently has a portfolio
of some 80,000 users in the greater Jakarta area. The company
expects to install 250,000 lines by the end of this year. (icn)