Friday 29 Mar 2024
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KUALA LUMPUR (Sep 13): Axiata Group Bhd’s 66.4%-owned Indonesian listed outfit, PT XL Axiata Tbk, has proposed to raise up to five trillion rupiah (RM1.5 billion) through the establishment of a shelf bonds and sukuk ijarah programme.

In a filing with Bursa Malaysia, Axiata said the programme consists of five series with each principal amount of up to one trillion rupiah.

The group said the bonds and sukuk will be issued via shelf registration public offering through bookbuilding process and have been assigned a rating of AAA (idn) — (Triple A) by PT Fitch Ratings Indonesia.

Assuming the maximum amount of five trillion rupiah nominal value of sukuk is issued by end of this year, Axiata said its consolidated gearing would increase from 0.63 times to 0.67 times.

The group said the proceeds after deducting issuance costs, will be used fully for capital expenditure to increase XL Axiata’s capacity, expand its network, and improve service quality.

“The capital expenditure includes but not limited to the purchase of Base Station Subsystem (BSS) and/or purchase of fibre optic transmission.

“The BSS specification is in 4G LTE Base Transceiver Station (BTS) to support GSM (second generation mobile network technology, 2G), UMTS (3G) and 4G LTE technology on one platform in the 900 Mhz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz cellular frequency bands which aims to expand the network coverage outside Java and increase the capacity and quality in Indonesia,” Axiata said.

“Whereas the fibre optic transmission aims to strengthen the high-speed network connectivity between cities and to extend the fibre coverage to BTS in order to prepare XL Axiata’s high-speed network for BTS 4G LTE and next generations,” it added.

Axiata said PT CGS-CIMB Sekuritas Indonesia, PT Mandiri Sekuritas, PT Indo Premier Sekuritas, PT Maybank Kim Eng Sekuritas and PT DBS Vickers Sekuritas Indonesia were appointed as the joint lead underwriters for the proposed bonds and sukuk.

Axiata said the fund raising is not subject to shareholders’ approval, and XL Axiata has obtained a pre-effective statement from Indonesia’s Financial Services Authority (OJK) for the commencement of bookbuilding.

Axiata’s share price gained 12 sen or 2.71% to close at RM4.55 today, giving it a market capitalisation of RM40.72 billion.

Meanwhile, XL Axiata rose by 40 rupiah or 1.37% to 2,970 rupiah, valuing the company at 31.74 trillion rupiah.

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