JAKARTA: Indonesia's state-owned coal miner PT Tambang

JAKARTA: Indonesia's state-owned coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam said Monday it expects its net profit for the full year of 2002 will fall 26 percent to around Rp 200 billion (US$22.4 million) from Rp 272 billion a year earlier.

Bukit Asam's Finance Director Abdul Aziz attributed the fall in net profit last year mostly to the closure of its coal plant in Ombilin, West Sumatra province.

The closure of Ombilin increased the company's cost of operations because it had to reclaim the plant site to improve the environmental conditions, he added.

Aziz said the closure of Ombilin plant also caused Bukit Asam's coal production in 2002 to fall by around 5 percent to 9.7 million metric tons of coal, from 10.2 million tons in 2001.

He said the lower production pushed the company's overall sales down by 4.5 percent to Rp 2.1 trillion last year from Rp 2.2 trillion in 2001.

He didn't elaborate further.

Bukit Asam shares Monday ended unchanged at Rp 550. - Dow Jones

ANZ unlikely to bid for Danamon

MELBOURNE: Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ), Australia's fourth largest bank, said Monday it remains interested in expanding its Indonesian business but is unlikely to bid for a stake in PT Bank Danamon Indonesia (P.BDI).

"We are interested in the Indonesian market, but it's a matter of finding the right asset at the right price," said ANZ spokesman Paul Edwards.

He said ANZ is primarily interested in a retail focus in Indonesia, "but we're quite happy to be patient and bide our time for the right one."

ANZ is among 70 global banks that has been approached by JP Morgan Chase to bid for a majority stake in Indonesia's fifth largest bank.

Bank Danamon is publicly listed, but is 99.35 percent owned by the Indonesian government after a bailout following the 1997 Asian economic crisis.

The government, through the Indonesia Bank Reconstruction Agency, plans to divest most of its stake in the bank this year.

It plans to sell a 20 percent stake via a public offering and 51 percent to a strategic shareholder, which will also have management control of the bank.

In an effort to attract investors to buy the government's stake, Bank Danamon's management and senior government officials will hold a roadshow in several countries in Europe and Asia. -- Dow Jones

SingTel sees sharp cellular growth

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) group's cellular subscribers in Asia are projected to grow sharply thanks to the popularity of prepaid accounts, a top executive said in remarks published Monday.

"Much of that growth in subscriber numbers will come from prepaid card sales," SingTel Mobile chief executive Lucas Chow was quoted as saying in the Business Times.

SingTel is the island's dominant telecoms company. It has an extensive presence in Southeast Asia and India through equity stakes, and has a wholly owned subsidiary in Australia, Optus.

Prepaid mobile cards remain hugely popular in Asia even though they come at a higher price. For operators, this also means there is no need for monthly billings since toll charges are deducted automatically from prepaid amounts. -- AFP

Air China to add extra flights

BEIJING: Air China will put on an extra 2,287 international and domestic flights to cope with an expected surge in demand from holidaymakers over the upcoming Lunar New Year festival.

The Xinhua news agency said they would include an additional 92 unscheduled international flights mostly to Australia and the Southeast Asian region and 56 special charter flights.

There will also be an extra 2,139 domestic flights in the peak festival period between Feb. 1 and 7.

Most of the international flights will arrive or depart from Beijing.

Unscheduled domestic flights will go to Xiamen, Guangzhou, Changsha and Wuhan, while charter flights will go to Haikou, Kunming, Sanya and Shenzhen.

More than a billion journeys are expected to be made by all modes of transportation between Jan. 17 and Feb. 25, Xinhua said. -- AFP

Vietnam to build bus factory

HANOI: State-owned Vietnamese company Transinco has been given the green light to build a US$130 million bus factory in northern Vinh Phuc province, officials told AFP.

"The construction will hopefully start in March. The project has a total capital of 2,000 billion dong ($130 million) and will be operational in 2005," an official from Vinh Phuc's Department of Planning and Investment said.

Transportation and Machinery Corp., owned by the Ministry of Transport, says it wants to produce 500 vehicles a year. It will first import engines and frames but aims ot increase the use of local parts in the future, according to local business magazine Vietnam Investment Review (VIR).

So far, South Korean Vidamco and German Mercedez-Benz were the only of the 11 foreign-invested auto assemblers to produce buses.

Transinco late last year won the bid to provide 300 buses to Ho Chi Minh City authorities, VIR added. -- AFP

Ascendas to invest $500m in South Korea

SINGAPORE: Property group Ascendas will invest US$500 million in South Korea over the next few years in a bid to build up its presence there, the Singapore-based property group said Monday.

Entry into the South Korean market is part of Ascendas' overall strategy to expand its network in the Asia-Pacific region, and the country's impressive rebound from the 1997 regional crisis is an added incentive, the company said in a statement.

"We have long-term plans which are aligned with South Korea's direction to position itself as North-east Asia's financial, business and distribution hub," said Chong Siak Ching, president and chief executive of Ascendas.

"The fundamentals for the property industry are strong due to the good demand-supply equilibrium and we believe that the real estate asset market will grow in tandem with the underlying long- term economic growth," she said.

Ascendas is especially keen to expand its real estate portfolio in the office and logistics and distribution sectors, Chong said. -- AFP