Mitsui to join RI project

Mitsui to join RI project

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's general trading house Mitsui and Co. Ltd. will join an international consortium to be established soon to start digital cellular phone services in Indonesia, company officials said yesterday.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun business daily reported Mitsui was to sign an accord Thursday to form a joint venture firm called Excelcom, with Nynex Corp. of the United States and Telecomindo Primabactie, a member of the local Rajawaril conglomerate, and other Indonesian firms.

A Mitsui spokesman confirmed the company would take an 4.2 percent equity stake in the venture but added that other details were not available immediately.

The daily said in a dispatch from Jakarta that the consortium with an initial capital of US$260 million would invest a total of 100 billion yen ($1.04 billion) and lay optical fiber cables across Indonesia.

Nynex will hold 23.1 percent of the venture, and Mitsui 4.2 percent, with Indonesian companies holding the rest, the paper said.