BRI gets syndicated loan
SINGAPORE (AFP): Bank Rakyat Indonesia (Persero) yesterday obtained a syndicated loan of US$87 million, officials said.
"Proceeds from the facility are to finance the bank's general working capital requirements," the statement said. The loan is for four years and one month but each lender may extend the period at the end of two years and one month from the date of the loan agreement.
Bank Rakyat will pay an interest of one percent per annum above the annual rate of the Singapore Inter Bank Offered Rate (SIBOR).
The lead managers are Arab Bank, DKB Merchant Bank (Singapore), KDB International (Singapore), Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp., Westdeutsche Landesbank Girozentrale and The Yasuda Trust and Banking Co.
There are 31 other banks participating in the syndicate. Bank Rakyat is wholly owned by the Indonesian government and has the largest banking network in the country providing services throughout the 27 provinces with over 3,500 locations.
Getting tourism publicity
JAKARTA (JP): Travel writers from Europe and Japan will brief executives of Indonesian tourism-related companies and tourism officials on the strategy and tactics of getting the most effective publicity on the print media.
The briefing, organized by Mepco and Purel Mondial, will be held at a one-day seminar at the Kartika Plaza Beach Hotel, Bali on May 11, Arifin Hutabarat, the organizer, said yesterday.
Hutabarat said publicity on the print media, including international and regional ones, is one of the best alternatives to support tourism promotion.
"However, executives of travel-related businesses and tourism officials often simply do not know how to get mass media exposure," he said in referring to the objective of the seminar. (vin).
Bunas to sell rights stocks
JAKARTA (JP): A special shareholders meeting of PT Bunas Finance Indonesia, a multi finance company, approved the company's proposal to offer them 28,829,508 shares with the price of Rp 1,500 (70 U.S. cents) through a rights issue.
The company's president, Francis Lay, told a press conference yesterday that 70 percent of the funds to be raised from the rights issue will be used for expanding the company's leasing business, 20 percent for consumer financing and the remaining 10 percent for factoring business.
Francis said the shareholders also approved the company's plan to increase the number of Bunas's branch offices from nine to 11 in Sumatra and Kalimantan.
The shareholders also approved Yan Peter Wangkar as the company's marketing director to replace Danny Firmansjah.(03)
KL to form investment firm
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The Malaysian government is to form a new investment firm to manage billions of dollars worth of investments and assets, Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday.
The new holding company will replace the government's investment arm, Minister of Finance Inc. (MoF) and will have its own board run by professionals instead of civil servants, Anwar told an informal press briefing.
"The new firm will ensure that the government's burgeoning assets are managed by full-time professionals," Anwar, who is also finance minister, said.
Anwar said Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad would be the chairman of the board, with himself as deputy.
Anwar said the new entity -- which officials said might be called Khazanah Holdings -- would have a structure similar to the Temasek Holdings, the Singapore government's main investment arm.
Deputy Finance Minister Mustapa Mohamed said on Monday that the government had invested 21.7 billion ringgit (US$8.7 billion) in 1,109 companies mostly in the 1970s after the implementation of a national policy to enhance commercial participation of indigenous Malaysians.
The investments accounted for 71.8 percent of the companies' total paid-up capitals, officials said.
China gets ADB loan
MANILA (AFP): The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$78 million loan to China to co-finance a power project in Guangzhou and an acrylic fiber project in Anhui province, the Philippines-based lending institution said yesterday.
The loan, comprising a $63 million facility for the Guangzhou project and $15 million for the fiber project, complements $305 million in loans arranged by the ADB in 1991 and 1993.
The syndicate is composed of the Bank of Tokyo, Fiji Bank, the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan, Mitsui Trust and Banking Co., Sanwa International Finance, Sumitomo Bank, Shanghai International Finance Co., Asahi Bank, the Norinchukin Bank, and Sakura Bank.
The Guangzhou project will add a second stage of 1,200 megawatts to a $1 billion pumped storage scheme, which will make it the largest its kind in the world.
It will ease power shortages in Guangdong province when it is commissioned in 1999, a bank statement said.
Rubber prices advance
SINGAPORE (AFP): Singapore rubber futures prices were mixed yesterday with TSR 20 steadier on covering against worries that Indonesian producers would be unable to ship their rubber, dealers said.
"Buyers are quite aggressive at the moment," a dealer said, adding that there were few sellers.
Medan, a major port for shipment of SIR 20 out of Indonesia, has been hit by workers' riots recently.
At around 0940 GMT, RSS 1 was quoted a cent higher at 148.00 Singapore cents, RSS 3 was down half cent to 92.50 U.S. cents while TSR 20 gained a cent to 162.00 Singapore cents.
Vietnamese invest overseas
HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam is not only receiving big wads of investment money from Western and Asian firms, its companies are also putting money into projects overseas, an official newspaper said yesterday.
The government's investment authority, the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment (SCCI), has licensed about 20 Vietnamese investment projects abroad in the past five years, the state-owned trade union newspaper Lao Dong said.
Vietnamese firms have invested in Russia, Hong Kong, Britain, Singapore, Thailand, Japan and Laos in fields like shipping services, food production, fishing and processing of maritime products and production of construction materials, it said.
The biggest investment abroad was US$2 million and the average was between $300,000 and 700,000, the newspaper said. It gave no details and SCCI comment was not available.
Official newspapers have earlier reported that the SCCI has issued 895 licenses for foreign projects in Vietnam valued at $8.5 billion since 1988 when Hanoi began to lure foreign investment.
Motorola technology center
CANBERRA (AFP): Industry Minister Peter Cook announced yesterday that U.S. electronics and mobile telecommunications giant Motorola would establish a technology center in Australia.
Cook said the move would involve investment, technology transfer, research and development, and exports of more than A$400 million (US$280 million) by 2000.
"This substantial initiative by Motorola confirms that Australia's information technology and telecommunications industries are of world class standard," he said in a statement.
"The company is planning a major expansion into the Asia- Pacific region and Australia is set to benefit from that strategy."
The site had not been chosen but the center would employ 400 research and development engineers by 2000, and was a key element of a partnership agreement signed with the government.
Under the deal, Motorola would give Australia a prominent role in its regional development and assist local companies with exports, Cook said.