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PT Mobile-8 Telecom, a subsidiary of PT Bimantara Citra, will
be offering its shares to the public at an initial price of between Rp
200 and Rp 240 (some 2 U.S. cents), expecting to raise up to Rp 936
billion in equity funds.
Some 57 percent of the raised capital will be used to upgrade and
expand its cellular network in Sumatra, Java, Lombok, Kalimantan and
Sulawesi, to serving up to 6.9 million subscribers, the company said in
a statement released Sunday.
The rest will be set aside as working capital.
Mobile-8 had previously announced plans to sell 3.9 billion shares --
or 19.91 percent of its ownership -- through an initial public offering
(IPO) later in November.
The bookbuilding for the company's maiden shares is expected to be held
on Nov. 22-24, with the IPO itself on Nov. 30 at both the Jakarta and
Surabaya stock exchanges. The underwriters for the IPO will be
Bimantara-affiliated PT Bhakti Securities, PT CIMB-GK Securities, and
PT Danareksa Securities.
Mobile-8's IPO will be the Jakarta bourse's eleventh for this year,
following rival Bakrie Telecom's in February.
Bhakti president Wishnu Handoyono expects a high market demand for the
IPO, with Mobile-8 managing to improve its performance lately amid
Indonesia's still potentially large cellular market.
"With a cellular penetration still at a relatively low of only 20
percent of its 220-million population, Indonesia's telecommunications
sector remains interesting for the market," he said.
Mobile-8 reported Rp 20 billion in net profits for the year's first
eight months ending Aug. 31 on a solid subscriber base growth, a
turnaround from Rp 26.5 billion in losses the company suffered until
2006's second quarter.
Touting the CDMA-based cellular technology, Mobile-8's "Fren" product
has along with rival services Bakrie Telecom's "Esia" and Telkom's
"TelkomFlexi" managed to create their own niche market in Indonesia's
cellular market currently dominated by GSM-based operators Telkomsel,
Indosat and Excelcomindo.
There are at present more than 45 million GSM-based cellular users, and
some 7 million CDMA-based subscribers, with Mobile-8 netting 1.6
million of the latter so far since launching its service in December
2003.
This is an increase from the company's 975,000 subscribers last year.
Mobile-8 expects its subscriber base to grow to 2.2 million by the end
of this year, 4 million by next year, and 7 million by 2008.
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