Satelindo gets $135m loan from Paribas

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)