Govt files $300m bonds with SEC

Govt files $300m bonds with SEC

JAKARTA (JP): Bank Indonesia, representing the government, has
formally registered its bond-offering plan with the Securities
and Exchange Commission of United States, reports said.

Bank Indonesia has not formally announced the value of the
bonds but Reuter reported from New York Friday that the value
will be around US$300 million.

The offering will be made through Salomon Bros Inc, Goldman,
Sachs & Co, J.P. Morgan & Co and Merrill Lynch & Co.

Proceeds of the bonds, which will mature in 2006, will be used
for general funding purposes related to Indonesia's development
plans.

Bank Indonesia Governor J. Soedradjad Djiwandono said recently
that the proceeds of the bonds, the first to be offered since
1988, would not be used to finance the country's current account
deficit.

"It is not the money we want to get but to set a benchmark for
private offshore borrowings," he told reporters.

Bond offerings made by Indonesian private companies overseas
were generally more expensive than those floated by other
countries owing to the absence of government bonds.

By floating the governments' bonds, Indonesian bond issuers
will have a benchmark or a guideline in setting up terms and
conditions of their bonds.

In the past Bank Indonesia issued a number of bond instruments
overseas, including those floated in Germany, Japan, the
Netherlands and Kuwait. The latest issuance worth DM300 million
was floated in Germany on 24 Oct. 1988. It matured in 1994.

Soedradjad said the planned issuance of the bonds should not
be related to the country's current account deficit, which is
expected to increase to $8.7 billion in the current fiscal year,
which ends in March 1997, from $6.9 billion last fiscal
year.(hen)