Telkom to sign loan deal worth US$200m

PT Telkom will next week ink a loan agreement worth Rp 2 trillion (about USS2OO million) to support part of its planned capital expenditure program. The state company would secure the financing from a group of state banks and from the Government Investment Center (PIP), a government-sanctioned agency specializing in providing capital to state enterprises. As of the first quarter, the number of subscribers to its cellular unit alone went up by 40 percent to 72 million people, while for the fixed-wireless segment, the number soared by 99 percent to 13.4 million. By comparison, the cellular subscribers of PT Indosat, the country’s second largest telcom firm, stood at 33.3 million during the same period ./ The Jakarta Post, pg 13, Kontan, pg 4, Investor Daily, pg 1,