NEC buys into Bakrie

NEC buys into Bakrie

TOKYO (AFP): Japan's NEC Corp. has acquired about one percent of Indonesian telephone contractor PT Bakrie and Brothers for three million dollars, hoping to win orders for 750,000 lines, a spokesman said Friday.

The spokesman said NEC also planned to help Bakrie develop a national television network across Indonesia and might take part in plans by Bakrie to expand its telecommunications business to Vietnam and other Asian countries.

NEC has already received orders for switches and microwave transmitters for 250,000 telephone lines from Bakrie, the spokesman said.

The Indonesian holding company, listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange but controlled by the Bakrie family, reportedly aims to boost sales tenfold from the 1993 level of 311 billion rupiah ($140 million) by 1998.

In addition to acting as a contractor for Indonesia's state- owned telecommunications company PT Telekom, Bakrie has diversified interests in the steel and pipe industries as well as automotive components, construction, electronics, engineering, garments, mining and petrochemicals.