Chandra Asri deal not final: Prijadi

Chandra Asri deal not final: Prijadi

JAKARTA (Reuters): Indonesian Finance Minister Prijadi Praptosuhardjo said on Monday a debt deal for petrochemical giant PT Chandra Asri was still subject to change even though it has been approved by the powerful state financial sector policy committee (KKSK).

Chandra Asri owes about $730 million to a consortium of creditors, led by Japan's Marubeni Corp, and about three trillion rupiah ($262.2 million) to Indonesia's bank restructuring agency (IBRA) -- a state body under the financial sector commitee's supervision. " About this Chandra Asri deal, it's not final...(it) can still change, so I have to first see which one is finally agreed by all parties before I can give my approval," Prijadi told reporters without elaborating.

Local media have recently reported IBRA is unhappy with some of the terms of the deal, mainly over a debt to equity swap. Under the proposed deal, IBRA will have to swap most of Chandra Asri's debt into equity, keeping only $50 million as debt. The financial committee, which is chaired by chief economics minister Rizal Ramli, last month approved the Chandra Asri deal.

But final approval rests with Prijadi.

The deal has been on the negotiating table for almost a year with the original restructuring agreed in June 2000. Under the latest terms, a large part of Chandra Asri's debt will be rescheduled for 15 years with an interest rate of 1.5 percentage points above the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor).

Marubeni earlier this month agreed to the financial sector policy committee's debt restructuring proposal.