Corporate News in Brief

MANDAN STEEL TO PRODUCE SPECIAL STEEL. Mandan Steel, a Chinese steel maker will produce special steel of the special alloy steel type with an annual capacity of 2 million tons a year in South Kalimantan. The project will cost around US$3 billion to be built over a period of 5 years. Special alloy steel is used as a material for military equipment such as armored vehicles , construction steel and locomotive wheels.. Mandan Steel has secured guarantee in iron ore supply from PT Yiwan Mining and PT Sebuku Iron Lateritic Ore (Silo) one million tons a year. Special steel is a downstream steel product with a boiling point of 1,500 C with high pressure functioning to protect instruments in manufactured products like electronic goods, automotive products and metal based machines.

NIPPON KOEI WINS MRT BASIC DESIGN TENDER. Jakarta is closer to implementing its long delayed subway project after a final decision has been made naming a consortium to prepare the basic design for the US$1 billion project. The government has announced the consortium of Nippon Koei Ltd won the basic design tender defeating rival consortium of Katahira & Engineers International . Tunjung Inderawan, the railway director general said the process of preparing the basic design will take 14 months. The completion of the basic design will be followed a tender for construction of the mass rapid transit (MRT) project) scheduled to be completed in 2016, Tunjung said. The MRT, design to ease traffic congestion in the city, will span a distance of 14.3 kilometer between Lebak Bulus and Dukuh in the city. The project will be financed with a loan from Japan Bank for International Cooperation to contribute Rp8.4 trillion, and state and city budget to put the rest. In the first year of its operation it will have the capacity of transporting 153,000 passengers per day to be increased to 339,000 in 2020. Earlier, Marubeni Tokyo and Sumitomo Corp. indicated interest in taking part in the auction for the construction of the project.

CONOCO-CHEVRON SIGN GAS TRANSACTION VALUED AT US$ 2.5 BILLION. ConocoPhilip and Chevron Pacific Indonesia agreed on a sale and purchase transaction of 500 billion cubic feet of gas. The contract, valued at US$2.5 billion, will be for over a period of 13 years. The gas will be needed by Chevron to increase its oil output in Riau. The transaction constituted one of seven gas sale and purchase contracts valued at US$3.26 billion signed in Jakarta recently. The contract, originally a swap contract between Conoco and Chevron and retroactive since January, 2009 is expected to save at least US$200 million a year.

BOSOWA HAS OPTION TO CONTROL 52% OF JORR W1. The Bosowa Group has the option to control 52% of the W1 section of the toll road of the Jakarta Outer Ring Road (JORR) built by PT Jakarta Lingkar Baratsatu (JLB). JLB President Fatchur Rochman said in the first phase Bosowa will pay a capital of Rp 196.5 billion or 25% of the total investment of Rp 1.6 trillion and the Bosowa Group will have the rights to increase their shares by 27 percentage point before 31 July 2010. In addition, PT Jakarta Lingkar Baratsatu is a joint venture to build W1 section of JORR. The venture groups PT Bangun Tjipta Sarana (BTS), PT Rekadaya Adicipta (RDA), PT Jasa Marga, and the Bosowa Group through its subsidiary PT Marga Utama Nusantara (MUN). In addition, Bosowa, Bangun Tjipta Sarana also will increase their paid up capital to Rp 407 billion. The share composition is 2% held by Bangun Tjipta Sarana and 25% by Rekadaya Adicipta, 25% by Bosowa and 23% by PT Jasa Marga Tbk 23%. Capital participation by Jasa Marga is Rp180.6 billion .

HEXINDO SECURES A CONTRACT VALUED AT US$ 19 MILLION. PT Hexindo Adiperkasa Tbk has secured a contract valued at US$18 million - US$ 19 million for the procurement of 210 units of excavator ordered by PT Riau Andalan Pulp & Paper (RAPP). Corporate secretary Heri Akhyar said recently the company received a contract for the procurement of 10 units of excavator valued at US$ 30 million and from mining contractor Thiess to be delivered by phases until the end of this year. The company is still bound by a contract for the procurement of heavy equipment from Kaltim Prima Coal, a subsidiary of the country's largest coal producer PT Bumi Resources Tbk valued at US$ 130 million in the form of giant dump trucks and four units of excavator. Until June 2009, the company succeeded in posting an income of US$ 53.17 million down from US$76.97 million in the same period last year. Its net profit also fell to US$4.22 million from US$5.2 million in the same period last year.

INDIA BUSINESS LEADERS PLAN TO INVEST US$ 4 BILLION IN INDONESIA. Indian business leaders are keen on investing in the manufacturing sector in Indonesia , planning to invest US$4 billion in the country in the next five years. The Indian business leaders grouped in the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) plan to invest in the automotive sector, textile machine, cable, packaging, heavy electrical, and in electrical equipment industries and in infrastructure and real estate sectors. Among the Indian companies are Nicco Corporation Ltd to invest in cable industry, ICS Group to operate in real estate, Jetline Group in packaging industry, Kirloskar Electric (heavy electrical) and WS Industries Ltd (electrical equipment.). A number of companies plan to invest in the automotive sector including Tata International Ltd to invest around US$200 million and TVS Motors to double its investment from US$5 million to US$10 million. Bajaj Auto Industry Ltd and Relliance Industry also indicated similar interest.

TPPI TO BUILD US$ 500 MILLION PETROCHEMICAL FACTORY. Producer of upstream petrochemicals PT Trans Pacific Petrochemical Indotama (TPPI) plans to invest US$500 million in a new petrochemical project in East Java. The company wants to build a new production unit for paraxylene with an annual production capacity of 600,000 tons in its complex in Tuban, its President Amir Sambodo said. The new unit will expand the production capacity of the government's controlled company for paraxylene from 550,000 tons at present. TPPI is seeking cooperation with state oil and gas company PT Pertamina in building the project starting next years, Amir said. The company already secures a commitment from Qatar Gas, the world's largest LNG producer, to supply it with the feedstock in condensate, he said. If Pertamina agrees to cooperate, work could start to build the aromatics plant early next year, he said. The country has only two producers of paraxylene including Pertamina, which has a production capacity of 220,000 tons a year from its Balongan plant. Indonesia imports 600,000 tons up to 900,000 tons of paraxylene a year to meet its domestic requirement of around 1.2 million tons a year.

TELKOMSEL AND INDOSAT TO HAVE ADDITIONAL 3G FREQUENCY. The government will give additional 3G frequency of one block or 5MHz uplink and downlink on 1,900 megahertz (MHz) band to Telkomsel and Indosat. There are five holders of the 3G license but only the two companies agree to pay Rp160 billion in cost for the additional frequency. The cost does not include cost for operating rights. The five operators holding the 3G license are PT Telkomsel, PT Indosat Tbk, PT Excelcomindo Pratama Tbk, PT Natrindo Telepon Seluler, and PT Hutchison CP Telecommunication.

MERUKH TAKES OVER DAS AND SMAC AT US$ 70 MILLION. The Merukh family which owns PT Pukuafu Indah, has acquired the entire stakes in two chartered aircraft operators - PT Dirgantara Air Services (DAS) and Sabang Merauke Air Charter Pte Ltd (SMAC). A family member Rudolf Merukh said DAS, bought at US$50 million and SMAC at US$20 million, are needed to facilitate transport between mining areas of Pukuafu. Pukuafu has a number of coal and copper mines and is a 20% shareholder of PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara, which has large cooper mine in West Nusatenggara. DAS and SMAC operate a number of small aircraft including ATR 42-300, Britten-Norman BN2A Islander, Indonesian Aerospace 212-100 and CASA 212. DAS is one of the airlines with air operator certificate suspended earlier by the transport ministry on July 1, 2009 after being lying idle since early this year.