PSN to raise $67m from share listing on Nasdaq
JAKARTA (JP): PT Pasifik Satelit Nusantara (PSN), the country's first private satellite and telecommunications operator, expects to raise US$67 million from floating 10.95 million shares on the Nasdaq Capital Market in the United States.
The company's president, Adi R. Adiwoso, said yesterday that the American Depository Receipts of the Bank of New York will have its initial public offering and begin trading today on Nasdaq in relation to the issuance and sale of the PSN shares.
The PSN shares will be sold in 3.65 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), covering up over-allotments to 1,642,500 shares at a selling price of US$20 per ADS.
"PSN's entry into Nasdaq provides brokers and others with immediate access to the best bid and ask prices and other information about the company's shares throughout the trading day," Adi said.
He said the company estimated that the public offering would generate gross proceeds of about $73 million, while expenses would cost about $6 million.
The company selected Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette as lead underwriter and Morgan Stanley as co-underwriter.
Adi said his company could not float its shares on domestic stock exchanges as PSN would fail to meet the requirements from the country's Capital Market Supervisory Agency (Bappepam).
Under the United States' Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, the company gained profit in 1993 but suffered losses in 1994 and 1995. In the first three months of 1996, the company suffered losses of $803 million.
PSN, set up in 1991, is a joint venture between overseas and domestic firms. The company's shareholders are state-owned PT Telkom, PT Elektrindo Nusantara, a subsidiary of the Bimantara Group, PT Skaisnetindo Teknotama, a company owned by Iskandar Alisjahbana, PT Primaupaya Lintaswara, a company owned by Adi and Hughes Space and Communications Inc. of the United States, Telesat Canada and other parties.
PSN provides satellite-based communication services within the Asia-Pacific region using 44 transponders in four separate satellites, including 12 in the Palapa-C1 and the Palapa-C2 satellites and 10 in the Palapa-B2P of Indonesia and eight in the Mabuhay satellites of the Philippines.
Joining with Philippines Long Distance Telephone Co. of the Philippines and Jasmine International Public Co. Ltd. of Thailand, PSN has set up PT Asia Cellular Satellite System (ACeS), a Jakarta-based telecommunications firm which will offer mobile-satellite-based cellular telecommunications.
"Of the total $67 million in earnings from the initial public offering, we will use $45 million for equity contribution to ACeS," Adi said.
ACeS has selected the American defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corporation as the spacecraft manufacturer, the Russian Proton rocket for the launch of its Garuda satellite and Ericsson of the Swedish Telecom group to manufacture the telephone handsets.
The first Garuda satellite, weighing 4,400 kilograms, will be placed at a geo-stationary orbit.
"After the first Garuda in orbit, a second satellite will be launched within the next 12 months," he said.
ACeS's $1-billion project will allow any person with a hand- held device to communicate directly with another person carrying a similar device within the satellite coverage in Asia and, through ground station gateways and normal public switch telephone networks, to any person with a cellular or fixed telephone anywhere in the world.
The satellite's coverage will encompass India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, China, South Korea, southern Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Indochina and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. (icn)