|
To strengthen its position as the country's largest cement
manufacturer, publicly listed PT Semen Gresik is planning to increase
its current production capacity of 17 million tons per year by building
two new plants.
The plants, each of which will have a capacity of 2.5 million tons per
year, are expected to add 4.4 million tons to the company's total
production and to come onstream in 2011.
"We'll invest around US$600 million on the construction of the plants,
and are now studying which locations would be most suitable," said
president director Dwi Soetjipto after the company's annual
shareholder's meeting Thursday.
He said that the potential locations included sites in Java, Sumatra
and Sulawesi.
"The shareholders have told us to start the construction work as soon
as possible, and that's what we want to do," said Dwi.
In tandem with the construction of the two new plants, Semen Gresik is
also planning to build seven new power plants with a total capacity of
350 megawatts (MW) to supply energy to both the proposed and existing
plants.
The company will invest a total of $350 million on the construction of
the seven coal-fired plants.
Excluding the cost of the power plants, the company's investment in
business expansion will amount to some $1 billion, Dwi explained.
He said that around 30 percent of the money would come from the
company's retained profits, while the remaining 70 percent would be
borrowed from third parties, such as banks.
"We'll look for the cheapest source of investment financing, and we'll
decide what it is in the second semester," he said.
Besides approving the plan to construct the new cement and power
plants, the shareholders also agreed to carry out a 1:10 stock split,
meaning that each company share, currently priced at Rp 48,000, will be
split into 10 new shares. After the split, the price of each share will
be Rp 4,800.
Dwi said that the stock split was intended to increase liquidity in the
trading of the company's shares.
Dwi also announced that Semen Gresik would pay out 50 percent of its
2006 net profit of Rp 1.3 trillion as a dividend, giving shareholders
Rp 1,091.62 per share.
The company's net profit increased by 29 percent last year from Rp 1
trillion in 2005. Total sales amounted to 16.76 million tons, with 88
percent being accounted for by the domestic market, and the remaining
12 percent being exported. Its overall share of the domestic market
rose to 46.9 percent from 45.4 percent in 2005.
|
