DKB to fund RI project

DKB to fund RI project

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank (DKB) has set up an international loan syndicate to finance a project to build and operate a telephone network in Indonesia, a press report said Wednesday.

The industrial newspaper Nihon Kogyo Shimbun said the 25-bank syndicate would extend US$480 million over nine-and-a-half years for the 840 million dollar project.

The project has been undertaken by Japan's Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) and other companies, the newspaper said.

It added that the syndicate was lead-managed by DKB, Deutsche Morgan Grenfell and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) and included Paribas Bank of France and major Japanese commercial banks such as Sakura, Sumitomo and Fuji.

The loan arrangement includes a currency swap of $35 million from local currency to U.S. dollars for proceeds from the phone business to avoid exchange losses as a result of a possible decline in the local currency, the rupiah, the newspaper said.

The phone project calls for NTT to build a telephone network to secure 400, 000 circuits in central Java by the end of March 1999.

DKB aims to win loan deals for telephone projects being considered by NTT in other parts of Asia, namely Vietnam, the Philippines, India and China, the newspaper said.