Great River to issue bonds
JAKARTA: PT Great River International, the country's largest fashion apparel producer and distributor, announced on Monday that it would issue five-year bonds worth Rp 300 billion (US$35.7 million), mostly for debt refinancing.
The company said that 80 percent of the bond yield would be used to refinance its medium- and long-term debts, totaling around Rp 300 billion. By doing so, the company was expecting to save up to Rp 80 billion in the next five years.
The remaining 20 percent would be allocated for investment.
The bonds, which carry an indicative interest rate in the range 14 percent to 15 percent, have received an A- rating with a stable outlook from rating agency PT Kasnic Credit Rating Indonesia.
PT Nikko Securities is the underwriter for the issue.
Triumph, Arrow, Kenzo and Elle are among the international brands produced by the firm.
As of the first semester of this year, the company booked sales of Rp 251.7 billion. -- JP
;AFP; ANPAf..r.. Corporate-Mitsui-Sakhalin Mitsui wins Sakhalin's $85.5m order JP/14/brief
Mitsui wins Sakhalin's $85.5m order
TOKYO: Major Japanese trading house Mitsui and Co. Ltd. said on Monday it had won a 10 billion yen (US$85.5 million) order to supply steel pipes for the Sakhalin II oil development project in the Russian Far East.
The some 110,000 tons of pipes, which have already begun to be shipped, will be used in an 800-kilometer (500 mile) long pipeline joining oil fields from northern Sakhalin island to a storage facility near the southern tip, it said.
Some 50,000 tons of piping will be acquired from Russian steel pipe maker Vyksa, with 60,000 tons to be acquired from Japan's Nippon Steel, Mitsui said.
Sakhalin II, with $9 billion worth of construction projects, is one of the largest integrated oil and gas projects ever undertaken, run by Sakhalin Energy Investment Co. Ltd., a joint venture between Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Mitsui and Mitsubishi Corp. --AFP
;AFP; ANPAf..r.. Corporate-LG-Muslim LG sells cell phone for Muslim JP/14/brief
LG sells cell phone for Muslim
SEOUL: South Korea's second largest handset maker, LG Electronics Inc., said Monday that it has unveiled a new cellular phone targeting the Islamic world.
LG said the new model, its LG-G5300 phone, has a compass and location-tracking software to show the direction of Mecca, the holiest place in Islam, although it can be used for a variety of directional purposes.
"The new product targets the Islamic world. Using global positioning system technology, Muslims will be able to pray toward Mecca in any place," LG spokesman Kim Kyong-Hwan told AFP.
The phone will enable users to point themselves in the direction of Mecca for prayer, he said.
"This can be used anywhere in the world," he said
Besides Arab countries in the Middle East, LG Electronics said it would expand its marketing to Muslim customers in Asia.
LG-G5300's will be shipped to Saudi Arabia this week, he said, adding the phone's retail price was set at about $250. --AFP
;AFP; ANPAf..r.. Corporate-GreatRiver-bonds Chrysler may cut jobs: Report JP/14/brief
Chrysler may cut jobs: Report
NEW YORK: Chrysler, the troubled U.S. subsidiary of U.S.-German car giant DaimlerChrysler, could soon announce layoffs, the Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition late Sunday.
"We are considering a lot of things that will make our company better," a Chrysler spokesman told the Journal, without going into details.
Senior DaimlerChrysler executives could discuss the possibility of job cuts Monday, on the sidelines of the Frankfurt motor show in Germany, the newspaper said, citing sources familiar with the issue.
But no decision would be taken before the publication of Chrysler's third-quarter results, it said.
Chrysler posted an operational loss of 948 million euros (US$1.05 billion) in the second quarter of 2003, compared to a profit of 414 million euros ($459 million) in the same period a year earlier.
And even though DaimlerChrysler says its U.S. arm will chalk up a small full-year profit, Chrysler has been battered by a fierce price war with its U.S. competitors, General Motors and Ford. --AFP