Indofood offers shares

JAKARTA (JP): PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, one of Indonesia's largest food processing companies and the largest producer of instant noodles, launches today a public offering of 21 million shares at a price of Rp 6,200 (US$2.8) apiece.

The initial public offering is lead managed by PT Merincorp securities company.

The company, which is a unit of the Salim group, owns and operates 22 food processing plants in various provinces. It reported a net profit of Rp 41.4 billion during the first quarter, up 45 percent from a year earlier.

Indofood said it would use 51 percent of the funds to be raised from the public offering for financing three new food processing plants in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, Manado, North Sulawesi and Medan in North Sumatra. The remaining 49 percent will be used for repaying its debts. (vin)