JAKARTA: PT Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper said Monday its unaudited

JAKARTA: PT Indah Kiat Pulp & Paper said Monday its unaudited consolidated net loss widened to US$190.4 million during the first half of this year from $46.8 million the previous year.

The Indonesian unit of Singapore-incorporated Asia Pulp & Paper Co. said its net loss widened on the higher cost of sales, which during the period rose to $591.76 million from $570.85 million. The higher cost of sales pushed the company's operating profit lower to $77.4 million from $123.45 million a year ago.

The company booked losses on interest expenses, which during the period totaled $128.65 million, compared with $146.45 million.

It also attributed the net losses to foreign exchange losses, which were $66.62 million compared with $48.14 million in foreign exchange gains during the same period last year. -- Dow Jones

Telstra interested in Indosat

MELBOURNE: Telstra Corp. is reportedly one of six parties to have expressed an interest in acquiring a 41 percent stake in Indonesia's Indonesian Satellite Corp., which provides long distance services in the country, the Australian Financial Review reports Monday.

The newspaper said the stake is worth about A$800 million.

The Indonesian government plans to sell a stake in Indosat through a strategic sale. -- Dow Jones

Ayala unit eyes 11% earnings growth

MANILA: Philippine conglomerate Ayala Corp.'s electronics manufacturing service unit is projecting an 11 percent increase in earnings this year on higher export sales.

This projection outperforms a forecast 5 percent growth for the industry.

Arthur Tan, chief executive of Integrated Microelectronics Inc., or IMI, told reporters both revenue and net profit will be driven by higher exports, particularly to Japanese companies.

Tan also said the company plans to expand to China to reduce production cost, and may also list on the Philippine Stock Exchange late next year or early 2004.

Electronics, the Philippines' main export, comprises over half the country's product shipments. --Dow Jones

Far Eastern Textile's profit up

TAIPEI: Taiwan's Far Eastern Textile Ltd., one of Asia's largest polyester makers, posted a net profit of NT$1.46 billion in the first half of the year, up sharply from NT$362.2 million in the same period a year ago, a company official said Monday.

The sharp rise in profit was due mainly to write-backs in securities investment, amid the gains in the Taiwan stock market during this period, the official added.

Earnings per share totaled NT$0.44 in the January-June period, four times of NT$0.11 in the same period last year, the official said.

In the first six months of the year, the company's revenue totaled NT$15.51 billion, down 4.1% from NT$16.17 billion a year ago. -- Dow Jones

Islamic fund sets up Brunei office

HONG KONG: Emerging Markets Partnership (Bahrain) E.C., manager of the US$1.5 billion Islamic Development Bank Infrastructure Fund, said Monday it has set up an Asian regional office in Brunei.

The Brunei office, the Emerging Markets Partnership (Brunei) Ltd., will serve as a base to seek investment opportunities in Muslim countries in Asia.

The IDB Infrastructure Fund, which closed its fund-raising period in December, is the first private equity fund to focus on infrastructure development in Muslim countries. The fund's investment scope includes the power, telecommunications, transportation, energy, natural resources, petrochemicals, and infrastructure-related sectors.

The fund will commit a minimum of US$10 million per investment, which it plans to hold for around five years.

Emerging Markets Partnership (Bahrain), which specializes in private infrastructure funds, has around $6 billion under management globally. -- Dow Jones

Siemens eyes cutting 4,000 more jobs

MUNICH, Germany : The German electronics giant Siemens is hoping to cut an additional 4,000 jobs in its ICN fixed-telephone networks division, not just 1,300 as announced last week, a spokeswoman said on Monday.

Siemens has already announced it was cutting a total 16,500 jobs in the ICN division from a total workforce of around 54,000.

But news of additional job cuts has seeped out in recent days, with Siemens first simply saying it was considering axing more jobs, without naming a figure, and then giving a figure of 1,300 last week.

In fact, 4,000 was the figure "currently being used in discussions" with employee representatives, the spokeswoman said on Monday.

Like other companies in the telecoms and high-tech sectors, Siemens has been hit hard by the bursting of the telecoms bubble and a collapse in investment by telecom operators and has decided to cut around 30,000 jobs across all its divisions around the world.

But the loss-making ICN division is taking the brunt of the cuts. At ICN's main factory in Munich, some 2,300 jobs are to be axed from a total workforce of 7,000.

However, labor unions and employee representatives have said they will not take the job cuts lying down. --AFP

Siam Mitsui brings new chemical plant

BANGKOK : Siam Mitsui PTA Co., a Thai-Japanese joint venture, has started commercial operations at a new plant producing 400,000 tons a year of purified terephthalic acid, resulting in a doubling of its production capacity for this chemical.

The new facility is located beside another PTA plant operated by the joint venture. That plant has been in operation since 1999, and also produces 400,000 tons/year of PTA, which is used in the production of polyester fibers and plastic bottles.

Siam Mitsui PTA is a joint venture between Japan's Mitsui Chemicals Inc. and Cementhai Chemicals Ltd., a unit of Thailand's largest industrial conglomerate Siam Cement PLC.

The plant was completed in July and it came on stream last week, Siam Mitsui said in a statement Monday. The new unit was built to help meet rising demand for PTA in Asia, it added.

The statement said Mitsui already has production bases for PTA in Japan, Thailand, Korea and Indonesia, and intends to make PTA one of its core businesses.

The construction of the new plant started in January 2001 and required an investment of US$220 million, according to Mitsui at that time. --Dow Jones.