Trada Maritime to reduce debts

JAKARTA: PT Trada Maritime Tbk plans to settle US$15 million debt or at least IDR128.58 billion this year due to prospective business future.The shipping companys debt position in IQ/2011 was IDR1.04 trillion with various maturities from 2 years to 7 years. The position was 153.94% higher than its position in IQ/2010.Trada Maritimes Director of Finance Adrian E. Sjamsul stated it settle US$13 million-US$15 million debt last year.We will settle another US$15 million this year. The fund will be taken from internal cash and we have no plan to conduct debt restructuring.Scheme used to determine the company's debt maturity is based on the term of the lease against the partnership so if Trada Maritime purchases a ship (with debt) and get a lease contract (from partnership) for 2 years, which is also the period to pay off the debt.Trada Maritime currently runs 40 ships where 36 units are its own ships. The TRAM-coded share operates floating storage offloading (FSO), tanker and dry bulk.The company, he continued, does not know the exact the projected total debt for 2011 as it already had paid off some debt this year yet on the other hand, there will be an additional new debt for capital expenditure.This year's capex is predicted to be around IDR1.03 trillion-IDR1.2 trillion and will be allocated to purchase 7 ships, consisting of tanker and panamax.The company, he continued, is conducting a negotiation with Bank Mandiri and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Ltd (ICBC) to obtain loan in the amount of IDR776 billion-IDR906 billion for capex.Trada Maritime is optimistic could pocket more than IDR800 billion revenue this year with prospective business performance in the first quarter of 2011. (T05/NOM)