Overseas banks loan $480m loan to telecom firm

JAKARTA (JP): PT Mitra Global Telekomunikasi Indonesia, a private firm responsible for developing telecommunications networks in Central Java, will today sign a US$480 million loan facility extended by overseas banks.

The loan is being extended to Mitra Global by 16 international banks, led by three main arrangers -- the Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ), Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank Limited and Deutsche Bank Asia Pacific (Singapore Banking Corporation).

The company's president, S.W.S Hardjito, said yesterday that the loan, which matures in 2004, will have an interest rate of 1.35 points above the London Inter-Bank Offered Rates (LIBOR).

"Out of the $480-million loan, $100 million will be standby service," he added.

Mitra Global was one of five private consortia which won 15- year joint-operation contracts when the state-owned PT Telkom handed over the management of its telecommunications networks to commercial operators last January.

Management contracts were signed last October by the five consortia, which will install some 2.25 million fixed telephone lines and operate them together with existing lines.

Mitra Global -- which groups state-owned PT Indosat, Telstra of Australia, NTT, Itochu and Sumitomo of Japan, and various domestic companies -- is assigned to install at least 400,000 lines in Central Java. (icn)