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)