07/05/2012 (Jakarta Post) - Publicly-listed oil palm plantation company PT Astra Agro Lestari (AALI) recently obtained credit amounting to US$50 million from three banks to finance expansion projects, an executive has said.

Finance director Santosa revealed that the three banks were the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. offering credit amounting to $15 million; the OCBC Bank with $25 million; and the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMCB) with $10 million.

“We will use the funds for working capital and investments. The funds will be used this year, but we will adjust them to our needs,” Santosa said on Thursday.

According to Santosa, the loans will mature in three years with various interest rates.

He said the company was looking for new areas for its oil palm plantations in West and South Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

According to AALI data that is available on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) website, the company currently owns 266,900 hectares of plantations nationwide. Broken down into areas, 18.4 percent of that total is located in Sulawesi, 41.7 percent in Kalimantan and 39.9 percent in Sumatra.

The company also has 22 crude palm oil (CPO) mills with a combined total processing capacity of 1,050 tons of fruit fresh per hour and eight kernel mills with a total capacity to produce 920 tons of kernel per day.

AALI, which is 79.7-percent owned by diversified conglomerate PT Astra International and 20.3 percent by the public, is allocating around $200 million in capital expenditure this year to develop its business.

The company spent Rp 540 billion ($58 million) between January and March, in which Rp 259.7 billion, or 48.1 percent of the total amount, was used for plantation development; Rp 159.7 billion or 29.6 percent was spent on supporting non-plantation development; while Rp 120.8 billion — 22.3 percent — went on mills and ports.

Santosa said recently that the company planned to construct four more mills this year to house fruit waiting to be processed. The company has a total of 45,000 hectares of immature plants, which will need new mills as the current number is inadequate to house them all once they mature.