Unggul Indah to issue Rp 600b bonds

Unggul Indah to issue Rp 600b bonds

JAKARTA: Indonesia's petrochemical company PT Unggul Indah
Corp. will issue Rp 600 billion (US$70.9 million) in five-year
bonds in October mainly to repay a debt and to help expand
production, it said Monday.

The bond, its first-ever issue, will be split into a fixed-
coupon and a floating-rate tranche. The company has yet to decide
the rates.

Unggul Indah said 70 percent of the proceeds will be used to
help pay back a $73.6 million syndicated loan, which was arranged
by JP Morgan Chase Bank. It didn't provide further details on the
loan. It will also use some of its own cash to repay the loan.

It has named PT Trimegah Securities and PT Danatama Makmur as
joint lead underwriters for the bond, which will be sold at the
full price.

The company booked a net profit of $9.01 million in 2002, up
from $8.86 million in 2001.

Unggul Indah is one of a slew of local companies tapping the
domestic debt market this year due to cheap borrowing costs amid
falling interest rates. But demand for bonds is still healthy
because of the better returns offered than bank rates. -- Dow
Jones

Indosat plans Rp 1.75t bond

JAKARTA: Indonesia's second-largest telecommunications company
PT Indonesian Satellite Corp. On Monday said it's planning to
sell Rp 1.75 trillion (US$207 million) worth of bonds to local
investors later this year to refinance the debt of cellular unit
PT Satellite Palapa Indonesia, or Satelindo.

The amount is less than the Rp 3 trillion Indosat mentioned
previously. The company's brief statement didn't explain the
smaller offering; company officials couldn't be immediately
reached for comment.

The new bonds will carry maturities of five and seven years.
PT Andalan Artha Advisindo, PT ING Securities Indonesia will
jointly lead underwrite the issue. The timing and coupon rates
haven't yet been finalized, Indosat said.

It said the local bond issue would allow the company to extend
its loan tenors, take advantage of the low interest rate
environment, and reduce risks stemming from exposure to foreign
currency and interest rate fluctuations.

Besides the rupiah bond issue, Indosat officials have said the
company also plans to offer up to $300 million in international
bonds later this year to refinance some of the $900 million debt
coming due.

The company's debt load increased in 2002 when it bought
Satelindo, the nation's second-largest cellphone company. Much of
Satelindo's $360 million debt is in short-term borrowings,
including bonds and bank loans. -- Dow Jones

Bosch to invest $675m in China

BEIJING: German power tools and car parts maker Robert Bosch
will invest 600 million euro (US$675 million) to build a plant
for manufacturing automobile parts in eastern China, a report
said on Monday.

China Business said the plant in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, is
expected to have annual sales of one billion euro and become
Bosch's global production base for fuel injection pumps.

The pumps made at the plant will meet European Euro III
standards, it said.

Bosch has already set up more than 180 repair outlets for
petroleum engines and 80 outlets for diesel engines in China, and
plans to raise the total number to 400 by the end of this year
and to 1,000 by 2010, the newspaper said. -- AFP

HK air passenger traffic reaches 90%

HONG KONG: Passenger traffic at the Hong Kong International
Airport continued to improve in August, reaching more than 90
percent of the level before the outbreak of SARS, the Airport
Authority of Hong Kong said on Monday.

The authority said in a statement that traffic had been
boosted by Hong Kong residents, who traveled on summer holidays,
including those who took advantage of special promotion packages
offered by the airlines.

It said visitors from most of Hong Kong's main markets have
returned to the levels of before the outbreak of Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

A total of 3.02 million passengers passed through Hong Kong
International Airport in August, down 5.30 percent from 3.19
million a year earlier, but up 22.30 percent from 2.47 million in
July.

Cargo throughput for the month stood at 219,000 tons, up 5.50
percent year-on-year from 207,631 tons in July last year, mainly
driven by growth in exports to the major markets of Europe,
Taiwan and mainland China.

The pneumonia-like SARS claimed 297 lives in Hong Kong out of
nearly 1,800 infections, with the city second only to China in
the severity of the outbreak. -- AFP