Intan Fajar secures US$17 million loans

BATAM (JP): PT Intan Fajar, a Batam-based property company, has secured a US$17 million loan from Malaysia-based Sime International Bank to refinance company debts.

Intan's president Sudjono Halim said Friday the company had to repay part of a syndicated loan raised earlier to finance its property expansion.

"This loan is a starting point of our business cooperation with Sime Bank, and we are looking forward to more cooperation in the future development of our property in Batam," Sudjono said after the loan signing ceremony.

Intan Fajar operates a number of businesses on Bantam Island, including an 18-hole golf course and ferry transport.

Sudjono said the company planned to develop a complex, comprising of retail housing, a marina and a hotel, and most likely a "corporate block" for retail offices.

The property complex would be built on a 134-hectare plot at Terring Bay on the east coast of the island, next to the 80- hectare golf course.

The project has been divided into six phases and is expected to be completed within three to four years, he said.

The first three phases of the project, which includes construction of infrastructure for retail housing properties and the golf course, had been completed with S$80 million (US$55.1 million) of investment, he said.

"About 60 percent of our retail property has been sold, even though the land hasn't been built on," he said, adding that about 50 percent of the property was sold to buyers from Singapore, with the remaining buyers from Taiwan, Korea and Jakarta.

He said the company planned to provide a "full service developer" which included architects and contractors for the retail housing.

"We are now studying options for our next project aside from the hotel and the marina," he said, "we might build a corporate block since retail housing is pretty much oversupplied on the island."

The corporate block would be focused on corporation branch offices, he said.

Meanwhile, Sime International's chief executive officer, Teo Keng Lee, said his company was confident of Intan Fajar's project and would likely further finance it.

"Batam has good prospects because it is located near Singapore," Lee said.

Sime has financed many projects in Indonesia, including oil palm estates, property and hotels. Its biggest investment here is in the manufacturing sector, Lee said. (das)