Satelindo gets $135m loan from Paribas

PARIS (JP): Private telecommunications operator PT Satelit Palapa Indonesia (Satelindo) has secured a US$135.89 million loan from French Paribas.

The loan, which will be signed here today, will be guaranteed by the French Export Credit Agency, COFAS.

Satelindo said the loan would be covered COFAS' political insurance with a 2.3 percent or $3.05 million premium.

The fixed interest rates for the five-year loan are 7.4 percent and 7.52 percent for tranche one and tranche two, making an average of 7.42 percent after tax.

With bank fees and insurance premiums the cost is 8.08 percent after tax.

Satelindo runs the global system for mobile communications (GSM) cellular telephone, the commercial satellite Palapa-C series and the 008 international telecommunications service.

The company, set up in 1993, is owned by PT Bimagraha Telekomindo -- a joint venture firm controlled by the Bimantara Group and the Artha Graha Group -- and DeTeMobil, a subsidiary of Germany's Deutsche Telekom.

State-owned PT Telkom and PT Indosat are minority shareholders in Satelindo.

Satelindo will use the loans to buy GSM equipment from French telecommunications giant Alcatel.

Alcatel is Satelindo's long-standing partner which has already supplied Satelindo's GSM infrastructure. The two companies already have two contracts.

The equipment includes network subsystem elements, base station controllers, radio base stations and associated microwave transmission equipment, outside civil works and turnkey engineering services.

The new system aims to improve Satelindo's GSM service and coverage. The company plans to expand its GSM service nationwide. Satelindo which currently serves about 210,000 users in Greater Jakarta, West, Central and East Java, East Kalimantan, North Sumatra and North Sulawesi.

Satelindo, which competes with PT Telkomsel and PT Excelcomindo in the GSM service, plans to operate in the country's 27 provinces by the end of the month. (icn)