Astra International wants creditor's vote

Astra International wants creditor's vote

HONG KONG (Dow Jones): PT Astra International has targeted
April 21 for the day the it hopes two-thirds of its creditors
will accept a plan for restructuring the automotive company's
huge foreign debts.

Astra's chief executive officer, Rini Soewandi, told Dow Jones
Newswires Sunday that her company hopes to hold a meeting that
day for creditors to vote on the company's plan in line with
provisions of Indonesia's new bankruptcy codes. At least half the
company's creditors must attend such a meeting, and the plan must
be supported by creditors representing two-thirds of the total
debt of about US$2 billion in order for the plan to be accepted.

Speaking by telephone from Singapore, Soewandi expressed
confidence that Astra's proposal would win two-thirds acceptance
and that legal paperwork will be completed in May.

Until a meeting with creditors Friday in Singapore, Astra has
been seeking to come up with a plan acceptable to all creditors.
But at the meeting, the company informed creditors it is
abandoning that approach and asking them to act in line with
bankruptcy code provisions seeking a two-thirds approval.

"It's impossible to get 100% approval from all your
creditors," said Ms. Soewandi. "You have to go for a majority."