M

ining contractor PT Darma Henwa is seeking loans to fund part of its next year’s capital expenditures amounting to US$162 million, the company’s top official says.

Finance director Wachjudi Anthony Martono said that the company would finance about 60 percent of total spending through loans from banks. “We are in talks with two local banks,” Wachjudi said during a public expose on Tuesday.

The company would use the expenditures for infrastructure development particularly on the East Binungan project and for heavy equipment purchase and maintenance, he said.

Darma Henwa currently has several ongoing overburden removal, coal-getting and coal hauling projects in Kalimantan; Bengalon coal mining project, an operating open pit mine owned by PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC); Asam Asam coal mining project owned by PT Arutmin Indonesia in Kalimantan; East Binungan coal project owned by PT Berau Coal Energy; and Sarongga coal project owned by Arutmin. The company said that it recently obtained contracts for Malinau coal project owned by PT Mitrabara Adiperdana, a company under coal mining group Baramulti.

“We are also in talks with four new potential clients. We hope to close the deals in 2013,” president director Adwin Harjanto Suryohadiprojo said.

Darma Henwa is expecting that the new contracts will boost its performance, with around a 40 percent increase in overburden removal to 130.79 million bank cubic meter (bcm) and about a 73 percent increase in coal hauling to 23.21 million metric tons next year. The company is expecting to report a total overburden removal of 93.27 million bank cubic meter (bcm) and coal hauling of 13.38 million metric tons by year’s end.

Up to the third quarter of the year, Darma Henwa’s overburden removal reached 68 million bcm and coal hauling reached 8.67 million metric tons, which were a 11 percent and 44 percent increase compared to the same period last year, respectively.

The increases outperformed other mining contractor players such as PT Delta Dunia Makmur and PT Pamapersada Nusantara, a subsidiary of publicly listed heavy equipment distributor PT United Tractors.

Delta Dunia reported a 6 percent increase in overburden removal to 263.7 million bcm, but a 9 percent decrease in coal hauling amounting to 7.6 million metric tons during January to September this year. Meanwhile, Pamapersada reported around an 8 percent increase both in overburden removal works to 634 million bcm and 68.5 million metric tons of coal hauling.

Wachjudi said that Darma Henwa expected to book $300 million in revenue by the end of the year, and between $380 million and $400 million next year.

The company reaped $250.51 million in revenue up to the third quarter of the year, increasing by 15 percent compared to a year earlier. However, growing operational costs, reaching $261 million this year, saw the company book $10.86 million in net loss, in the first nine months of the year, a significant setback compared to a net profit of $364,084 in the same period last year.

“This year, our losses will be less than $11 million because we will see contributions from East Binungan and Sarongga projects,” Wachjudi said.

Darma Henwa is currently 21.61 percent owned by Zurich Assets International Ltd., 17.68 percent by Goldwave Capital Limited, 8 percent by Quest Corporation and 52.67 percent by the public.