Bakrie to install lines in Vietnam and India
Bakrie to install lines in Vietnam and India
JAKARTA (JP): PT Bakrie & Brothers, the holding company of the
Bakrie Group's non-financial subsidiaries, will team up with PTT
Nederland to install and market telecommunication facilities in
Vietnam and India.
Tanri Abeng, the president of Bakrie & Brothers, said here
yesterday that the telecommunication projects in Vietnam will
cover the construction of around 400,000 telephone lines.
"In India, we will take the advantage of its privatization
program in telecommunication projects," he said after their
annual shareholder meeting.
Bakrie & Brothers and the Dutch company, in the first stage,
will install and market around 100,000 of the licensed telephone
lines, he explained.
He said that the construction of the telecommunication
projects will cost Bakrie & Brothers and its partner around
US$1,000 for each telephone line. "Around 20 percent of the
funding will be in the form of equity and the other 80 percent in
loans," he said.
Tanri said that the investment for the planned
telecommunication projects in India will be much smaller than
those in Vietnam as most of the investment will be made through
equity participation in that country's state-owned
telecommunication companies.
Bakrie & Brothers' other investment projects, he said, will
include the construction of three power plants in Tarahan of
Lampung, Tanjung Jati of Central Java and Serpong of West Java.
The total investments of the three power plants will reach
around US$1.5 billion, he said. "Bakrie will put up around 20
percent of the total amount."
Bakrie and Brothers, which is listed on Jakarta and Surabaya
stock exchanges, is controlled by the Bakrie family, with the
investing public holding 46.19 percent of the company.
The business group operates in telecommunications, steel-
related industries and plantations through its 24 subsidiaries
and affiliated firms.
Dividends
Yesterday's shareholder meeting approved the management's
proposal to distribute around 35 percent of the group's 1994
consolidated net profits as dividends. The meeting also endorsed
a proposal to split the group's stocks.
Tanri said that the par value of Bakrie & Brothers' stocks
will be halved to Rp 500 from the present Rp 1,000, thereby
allowing shareholders to receive an additional new share for each
existing share held.
He said that the stock split, which will automatically dilute
the price -- now around Rp 6,700 -- by a half, is expected to
make the stocks more liquid.
"We hope the lower price will also encourage small-scale
investors to buy stock," he said.
Last year, the business group reported a 292 percent rise in
its net profit to Rp 102.8 billion (around US$46.7 million) from
Rp 26.2 billion in 1993.
The group's telecommunication division contributed around 53.7
percent of the total profit, the steel-related subsidiaries
around Rp 20.9 percent and the plantations 12.4 percent. (hen)