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ublicly listed telecommunications tower operator Sarana Menara Nusantara plans to raise Rp 3.86 trillion (US$331.83 million) from a rights shares offering next month to finance its expansion plans, which includes building 2,000 new towers this year.

Sarana Menara aims to release 1.02 billion new shares in the non-preemptive rights issuance, which is equivalent to 10 percent of the company'€™s enlarged capital, according to the statement it submitted to the Indonesian Stock Exchange (IDX) website on Wednesday.

The rights shares will be offered at Rp 3,792 apiece. That compares with Sarana Menara'€™s stock price of Rp 3,900 on Wednesday, which went up by 1.83 percent during the day compared to the previous day.

Following the rights shares offering, the public'€™s stake in Sarana Menara will be diluted by about 5.55 percent to 55.42 percent.

Meanwhile, PT Tricipta Mandhala Gumilang, PT Caturguwiratna Sumapala and Pershing LLC Main Custody Account will have their stakes in the company reduced by 1.51 percent, 1.46 percent and 0.57 percent, respectively.

Once the rights shares are in effect, Tricipta will hold 15.17 percent of the firm'€™s shares, Caturguwiratna will hold 14.57 percent of the shares and Pershing will hold 5.75 percent.

Sarana Menara president director Adam Gifari said in an official statement that the funds would be allocated for its tower provider subsidiary, PT Profesional Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Protelindo), to build or acquire new towers.

'€œWe have yet to define who will be the strategic investors for the rights issuance. Therefore, we cannot announce the buyers of the new shares now,'€ Adam said.

Indonesia, the world'€™s fourth most populous country, is an active market for telecommunications operators. Cell phone subscription in the country '€” which has a population of over 240 million '€” reached 290 million in 2012, as many people carry two or more devices.

An increased demand for towers from telecommunications operators has resulted in Sarana Menara'€™s plans to build around 1,500 to 2,000 new towers this year, adding to the 9,746 towers its currently owns. One new tower usually requires a Rp 1 billion investment from a tower company.

As previously reported, Sarana Menara has readied about Rp 3 trillion for its capital expenditure, most of which will be allocated to supporting its tower expansion. Last year, the company built and acquired 1,286 towers.

During the first quarter of this year alone, Sarana Menara has built 255 new towers and acquired one existing tower. The company'€™s tenants grew by 16.5 percent year-on-year to 18,869 tenants in the January-March period this year.

Protelindo'€™s expansion plans in the tower business also include a bid to acquire a stake in Mitratel, the tower-provider wing of state-run telecommunications giant Telkom, with a share-swap mechanism.

The bidding result will be announced in the third quarter of this year, with another publicly listed tower operator, PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure, also joining the bid.

Sarana Menara has stated that it expects its revenue to reach Rp 3.87 trillion this year, a 21 percent increase from last year. In the first three months of this year, the company booked Rp 913.19 billion in revenue, up 26.8 percent from the same period last year. Net profit surged almost threefold to Rp 449.02 billion during the same period.

Sarana Menara is affiliated with Indonesian business conglomerate Djarum Group, which is fully owned by the Hartono family, who occupy the top position on the Forbes rich list in Indonesia.

The company'€™s stocks, trading at the IDX under the code TOWR, have gained almost 42 percent so far this year, easily outperforming the broader Jakarta Composite Index'€™s (JCI) 16.6 percent gain.