Port company to issue bonds

JAKARTA (JP): PT (Persero) Pelabuhan Indonesia II, a state- owned port company, will issue five-year bonds next month to raise Rp 100 billion (US$46.5 million) to finance the construction of Container Terminal III at Koja in North Jakarta.

The company's president, Amir Harbani, told a public presentation yesterday that the bonds will cover only part of the new terminal's cost of $483.4 million.

He explained that the building of the new port on 90 hectares in North Koja sub-district is in anticipation of an annual 15 percent increase in container cargo traffic through the year 2000. The new port will have an initial capacity of handling 165,000 twenty-feet equivalent units at a time.

Rahardjo Ramelan, the vice president of PT Sigma Batara, the company underwriting the bond issue, said the bonds' interest rate will be set a week before the final hearing at the Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bapepam) on June 1.

However, he explained that the interest rate will be fixed for the first year and will float above the average interest rate offered by state banks for their six or three month deposits.

Interest will be paid quarterly.

The company, which employs around 5,000, operates 19 ports in eight provinces, including Jakarta, West Java, Lampung, Bengkulu, South Sumatra, Jambi, West Sumatra and West Kalimantan.

The amount of container traffic at ports managed by the company increased by 4 percent to 119.4 million gross registered tons last year.

Container terminals accounted for 52.7 percent of the company's profits in 1992 and 53.4 percent in 1993.

The company's operational profits from container terminals increased from Rp 85.71 billion in 1992 to Rp 89.38 billion last year and are projected at Rp 125 billion this year.

The company's before-tax profit, however, decreased from Rp 119.9 billion in 1992 to Rp 103.2 billion in 1993 because its operating costs rose from Rp 131.6 billion to Rp 180.2 billion.(03)