Barito Pacific to distribute 88% of profits

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed PT Barito Pacific Timber decided yesterday to distribute Rp 77 billion (US$32.08 million) or 88 percent of its total net profit of Rp 87.28 billion in 1996 as dividends.

"It equals Rp 55 a share," the company's president Joso Abdullah Gotama said after the company's shareholders meeting yesterday.

He said about Rp 5.66 billion of the company's net profit last year would be used as cash reserves and the remaining Rp 4.61 billion as retained earnings.

He said the company, which had total assets of Rp 2.66 trillion as of December 1996, planned to expand into coal mining in the coming years.

Joso declined to give further details about the company's coal mining plans.

The company's report says BPT has set up three coal mining firms, PT Pendopo Energi Batubara, PT Penukalabab Energi Batubara and PT Babatoman Energi Batubara.

"Pendopo has made a preliminary survey in South Sumatra," he said.

Early this month, the company announced a plan to issue five year bonds worth Rp 400 billion (US$166.66 million) later this year to refinance its debts.

Barito's chief commissioner Prajogo Pangestu said recently that most of the proceeds from the bond flotation would be used to repay the company's loans from two state-owned banks, Bank Bumi Daya (BBD) and Bank Dagang Negara.

The company owed BBD about Rp 170.8 billion and BDN about Rp 198.6 billion, he said. (09)