UIC buys S'pore firm to enter Australia

UIC buys S'pore firm to enter Australia

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's sole producer of alkylbenzene PT
Unggul Indah Corporation (UIC) gained control of 50 percent of
Australia's phosphate and surfactants producer Albright and
Wilson Limited (AWA) by buying Singapore's Salim Olechemicals Pte
Ltd (SOC), the company said yesterday.

UIC's president director Hartono Gunawan said UIC had agreed
to buy 100 percent of SOC's shares for $20 million from Worldwide
Link Ltd, owned by Soedono Salim and Anthony Salim.

SOC owned 50 percent of AWA, which has a large market in the
Asia-Pacific region, he said.

"By buying SOC's shares, UIC expects to be able to take over
AWA's technology as well as penetrate AWA's phosphate and
surfactants market in the Asia-Pacific region," he said, adding
that the company's shareholders meeting agreed yesterday to buy
SOC.

Hartono said UIC also hoped to sell some its alkylbenzene to
AWA which still imported most of its raw materials, including
linear alkylbenzene, lauryl alcohol and phosphors.

AWA operates a phosphate production facility in Yarraville,
near Melbourne, and surfactants production facilities at
Wetherill Park near Sydney.

Hartono said the company increased its net profit 26 percent
to Rp 41.3 billion (US$17.2 million) last year and its sales 15.8
percent to Rp 368.1 billion.

Petrocental

UIC's subsidiary PT Petrocental, the country's sole producer
of sodium tryoply phosphate, increased its net profit 96.1
percent to Rp 1.8 billion in 1996.

The company's subsidiary in Vietnam, which produces dodecyl
benzene sulfonic acid, linear alkylbenzene sulfonic acid and
sodium lauryl sulfate increased its net sales 102.6 percent to
$8.5 million a year.

The UIC shareholders meeting agreed to distribute 35 percent
of the company's net profit in 1996, or Rp 100 per share, as
dividends.

"We project an increased net profit of between 5 percent and 8
percent due to an increase in alkylbenzene's price," he said.

Alkylbenzene is the raw material for making detergent.

Hartono said he hoped the third unit of UIC's production
facilities in Serang, West Java, now under construction, would
start commercial production early next year, increasing the
company's production capacity from 150,000 tons to 210,000 tons a
year.

With the annual domestic demand for alkylbenzene remaining
160,000 tons a year, the increase in UIC's capacity would create
an oversupply, he said.

"We are now searching for a new market in Europe, Japan and
Singapore," Hartono said.

UIC also began this year to convert paraffin to olefin with a
production capacity of 120.000 tons a year.

Olefin is a raw material to produce linear alkylbenzene.

Hartono said the company's subsidiary PT Unggul Indah
Investama in a joint venture with Singapore's property firm First
Capital Corporation would start building six towers at the
company's property on Jl. Gatot Subroto.

The joint venture will invest $250 million on the six towers.
(jsk)