Sinar Mas to issue 663m new shares

JAKARTA (JP): PT Sinar Mas Multiartha, the Sinar Mas Group's holding company, won the approval of its shareholders yesterday to issue 663 million new shares for Rp 750 (31 U.S. cents) a share through a limited offering.

The company said it expected to receive Rp 497.2 billion through the offering. It plans to use 99.2 percent of the funds to buy a Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) rights issue, while 0.8 percent will be used to strengthen the capital of its subsidiary PT Asuransi Sinar Mas.

No details are available on BII's planned rights issue.

Multiartha, once a finance company, has held a 51 percent stake in BII since the Sinar Mas Group's restructuring program early this year.

The company said it would attach one warrant share to every ten rights shares, totaling 99.4 million shares, to sweeten its offer.

The warrants can converted for Rp 1,000 between May 28, 1997, and Nov. 28, 2001.

Multiartha's total assets were worth Rp 15 trillion on June 30.

In the first six months of this year, the company booked Rp 1.1 trillion in net revenue, compared to Rp 1.9 trillion for the whole of last year. In the January-June period, it recorded a consolidated net profit of Rp 180 billion, compared to Rp 236 billion for the whole of 1995. (alo)