Bukaka wins loading bridge contract
Bukaka wins loading bridge contract
JAKARTA (JP): PT Bukaka Teknik Utama, a publicly-listed subsidiary of the Bukaka Group, has won a US$75 million contract for the construction of 76 aircraft loading bridges for Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok airport.
"This is the biggest single contract we have gained for aircraft loading bridges," Fadel Muhammad, president of the group, told journalists yesterday.
He said Hong Kong's Provisional Airport Authority selected Bukaka from among noted companies from Japan, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands and the United States.
Rahmat Ismail, a director of Bukaka Teknik, said that his company was the only manufacturer of aircraft loading bridges in the world to have obtained an ISO-9001 quality assurance certificate.
Bukaka Teknik, which is concerned with the engineering and manufacture of infrastructure-related products, sold 40 million shares on the Jakarta and Surabaya Stock Exchanges last December.
Besides aircraft loading bridges, the company also produces vacuum tank trucks, mobile rescue trucks, special trailers, asphalt-mixing plants, rice-milling plants, oil-pumping units, storage tanks, conveyor belts, ship loaders and unloaders, steel towers, transmission lines, electrical power plants, runway sweepers and aircraft re-fueling equipment.
Bukaka has exported a number of its products, including aircraft loading bridges, to neighboring countries. It has exported 142 loading bridges to China, Japan, Singapore and Thailand.
Fadel said that Bukaka Teknik had negotiated an offshore syndicated loan of US$55 million from foreign banks, with an interest rate 1.5 points above the Singapore Inter-Banks Offered Rate (SIBOR).
"The loan shows that the banks' confidence in Bukaka's prospects has increased," Fadel said, adding that the money would be used to strengthen the company's operating funds.
Suhaeli Kalla, vice president of Bukaka Teknik, said the syndicated loan was being lead-managed by the First National Bank of Boston, Kexim Asia Limited and L.F.C. Far East Ltd.
Executives of Bukaka Teknik will sign the syndicated loan agreement today, Fadel said.(rid)