Indonesian Coal Miner Bumi Resources Prepares Rights Issue
Indonesian coal miner Bumi Resources plans to conduct a rights issue in June 2017 through which it aims to raise IDR 26.9 trillion (approx. USD $2.0 billion). Bumi Resources will sell 29.1 billion shares, equivalent to 79.5 percent of the company's enlarged capital. Proceeds from this corporate move go to the debt restructuring program. Bumi Resources wants to pay off its debt to the China Investment Corporation (CIC) as well as eight other creditors. Bumi Resources has some USD $4.2 billion worth of commercial debts (excluding intercompany loans).
Andrew Christopher Bechkam, Finance Director of Bumi Resources, said shares will most likely be offered at IDR 926 per share (approx. USD $0.07). Although it is a debt-to-equity swap, meaning that creditors will convert the debt into shares, existing shareholders can also subscribe. Of Bumi Resources' nine creditors only China Investment Corporation (CIC) already owned a stake in the Indonesian miner (16.9 percent).
If successful, the rights issue cannot solve all of Bumi Resources' debt problems, but it could nearly halve the company's debt obligations. The debt-to-equity swap could erase USD $1.99 billion of the miners' debt. Bumi Resources' creditors are CIC and the China Development Bank (CDB), Credit Suisse, UBS, Axis Bank, Deutsche Bank, Raiffeisen, and Bank International.
Bumi Resources Director Dileep Srivastava said the company's market capitalization will rise drastically after the rights issue, from IDR 11.1 trillion on 6 December 2016 to an estimated IDR 38 trillion after the rights issue. Despite dilution (the side-effect of a rights issue), Srivastava said the value of shares will rise.
Srivastava added that by the end of 2017 debt of Bumi Resources should be reduced to USD $2.6 billion from USD $4.2 billion currently. This is a positive development and means that the company will have a lower interest payment burden. The miner also hopes to post positive equity in 2017, supported by a 5-7 percent increase in the company's coal sales and production and the sharply rallying coal price. Up to the third quarter of 2016 Bumi Resources posted a 10.7 percent (y/y) growth in coal sales (to 64.6 million tons).