Dayamitra to sign $230m loan from overseas banks

Dayamitra to sign $230m loan from overseas banks

JAKARTA (JP): PT Dayamitra, a developer of telecommunications
networks in Kalimantan, will sign for a US$230 million loan later
this week from Sanwa Bank of Japan, ING Bank of the Netherlands
and other overseas banks.

Dayamitra's chief commissioner, Tanri Abeng, told The Jakarta
Post yesterday the loan would be used to install 237,000
telephone lines in Kalimantan by 1999.

The company is 29.03 percent owned by PT Intidaya
Sistelindomitra, a subsidiary of state-owned PT Telkom, and 25
percent owned by Cable and Wireless of Britain, which has
replaced Malaysia Telekom as a shareholder.

PT ALatieF Nusakarya, an ALatieF Corporation subsidiary, TM
Communications of Hong Kong, the Indonesian tea producers'
cooperative Kopthindo and the Singapore-based American
International Group also have shares in the company.

Dayamitra revealed in April it would spend $250 million
installing 237,000 telephone lines over three years.

Tanri said yesterday his company could install up to 20
percent more lines than the government required.

The government has revised its new fixed-telephone-line target
for the current Sixth Five-Year Development Plan period upwards
by 54 percent, from five million to 6.7 million lines.

The government contracted Dayamitra to install the new
telephone lines in Kalimantan by 1999 and manage them and the
existing fixed telephone lines installed by Telkom for 15 years.

"The company will change its name to Dayamitra Telekomunikasi,
nicknamed Mitratel," Tanri said yesterday.

The company used to be called Dayamitra Malindo, reflecting
its Malaysian and Indonesian shareholders. (icn)