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)