Semen Cibinong gets loan of $175m

Semen Cibinong gets loan of $175m

JAKARTA (JP): PT Semen Cibinong, a privately-owned cement producer, has gained a five-year term loan facility of US$175 million from a syndicate of 28 international banks.

The company's president, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, said that out of the new loan, $100 million will be used to repay existing debts.

"The remaining $75 million will be used to finance the up- grading of our first and second production units in Narogong, Bogor, which have a combined capacity of 700,000 tons a year," he told reporters after signing the agreement on the loan Friday.

He said the up-grading will increase the plant's production capacity by 10 percent.

Semen Cibinong has three production units in Narogong with a total capacity of three million tons a year. A new unit with a production capacity of 2.6 million tons will be built adjacent to the existing units.

Hashim was quoted by Bisnis Indonesia as saying that the new loan will bear an interest rate of 1.5 percent above the London Interbank Offered Rate.

The banking syndicate includes the ABN-Amro Bank of the Netherlands, Chase Manhattan Bank of the United States, Deutsche Bank of Germany, Industrial Bank and Sakura Bank of Japan and state-owned Bank Bapindo.(04)