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.