Borneo in red, seeks more loans for Bumi plc deal

JAKARTA. Despite seeing a sizeable loss in the first quarter, coal miner PT Borneo Lumbung Energi & Metal is looking to apply for other loans to finance its plan of increasing stakes in the London-listed Bumi plc.

Borneo, which produces hard coking coal, reported US$14.18 million in net loss in the first quarter of the year. In the same period last year, it booked a net profit of $11.95 million, according to a file submitted to the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on Thursday.

The coal producer, which runs business through its 99.99 percent owned subsidiary PT Asmin Koalindo Tuhup, reported higher revenue by 13 percent to $138.61 million during January to March period of the year from $122.61 million year on year.

The company gave no details about the volume of its coal sales during the first month of the year. Borneo director Kenneth Allan declined to reveal the sales volume, saying that the company would officially release the figures soon.

Coal miners have been hit by declining average selling price of the commodity due to weakening demand over the slowing global economy. The index of hard coking coal is almost half of that in January 2011, when it reached its highest level of $365.83 per metric ton, according to data from Energy Publishing Inc reported by Bloomberg on Monday.

Despite higher revenue, Borneo booked growing costs during the first quarter of the year, including finance costs of $23.01 million during the period, which was a 25 percent jump compared to the same period last year.

The interest burden was due to a loan amounting $1 billion from Standard Chartered Bank obtained in January 2012.

Borneo used the $1 billion loan to finance its acquisition of 23.8 percent stake in London listed Bumi plc from the Bakrie Group.

According to Borneo’s financial report, the loan bears interest of 5.65 percent above LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) for offshore lenders and 6.15 percent above LIBOR for onshore lenders. Borneo pledges its stakes in Asmin Koalindo and another 99.99 percent owned subsidiary PT Borneo Mining Services to secure the loan, according to its financial report.

Borneo recently announced that its affiliated entity called Ravenwood Pte. Ltd. had entered an agreement with Bakrie Group about purchasing the latter’s stake in Bumi plc.

Under the deal, Ravenwood is planning to acquire Bakrie Group’s remaining indirect stake of 23.8 percent in Bumi plc for $223 million.

Bumi is planning a meeting to seek approval about the sale of Bumi Resources to Bakrie Group for $501 million.

Should Bumi plc obtain the approval and Borneo also gets a green light from shareholders to push Ravenwood to take ownership of 23.8 percent for $223 million, Borneo will hold a total of 47.6 percent stake in Bumi plc.

“Ravenwood’s acquisition will be funded by Pak Samin, who still has many assets,” Borneo president director Alexander Ramlie said last week, referring to local tycoon Samin Tan, who is also the founder and former president director of Borneo.

Samin is also currently Bumi plc’s chairman.

Regarding Borneo’s plan to purchase Bumi plc’s shares through Ravenwood, Alexander said his company would use funding from banks. Standard Chartered Bank is one of banks in talks with Borneo for the financing, according to Alexander.

Following the poor financial result announcement, shares in Borneo, traded on the IDX under a code BORN, were closed 1.49 percent lower to Rp 330 apiece on Thursday compared to a day earlier. (Raras Cahyafitri)