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ublicly listed telecommunications firm PT Indosat (ISAT) is optimistic about its business this year, particularly after the company completed a network upgrade and debt refinancing, according to a spokesman.

The company'€™s optimism was mainly driven by the fact that it has set aside funds for the legal case of its subsidiary PT Indosat Mega Media (IM2).

Indosat spokesman Andromeda H. Trisanto said on Tuesday he was confident the company would be able to record a net profit this year as everything seemed to be getting better.

'€œThis year should be better as we'€™ve completed our network modernization. In addition, our net loss last year was mainly caused by [fund allocations for] the IM2 provision,'€ he told The Jakarta Post.

The Supreme Court previously found both IM2 '€” Indosat'€™s subsidiary operating as an Internet service provider '€” and its former president director Indar Atmanto guilty of misusing a 2.1 gigahertz frequency band.

IM2 was obliged to pay Rp 1.36 trillion (US$104.12 million) in substitution for the in-kind state losses. As a parent company Indosat then set aside Rp 1.36 trillion for the provision and recorded the allocation as an expense in last year'€™s financial report.

The IM2 provision was one of the firm'€™s largest expenses last year and it put heavy pressure on its revenues, which grew by only 0.9 percent to Rp 24.09 trillion last year from Rp 23.86 trillion in 2013.

Cellular services were still the largest revenue contributor, making up 80.9 percent of the total revenues last year, followed by multimedia, data communication and Internet (MIDI) and fixed telecommunications.

Indosat'€™s declining foreign exchange (forex) losses last year helped the firm record lower net losses of Rp 1.86 trillion, a 30.3 percent decrease from Rp 2.67 trillion in 2013.

The decline in forex losses was a result of the company'€™s reduction of its debt-denominated loans, as well as lower level of rupiah weakening compared to that of 2013.

Indosat cut its total bank loans and bonds by around Rp 900 billion to Rp 23.2 trillion last year, lower than Rp 24.1 trillion in the previous year.

To further reduce its exposure to the US dollar, Indosat would carry out a call option in July this year for its $650 million-bond maturing in 2020, Andromeda said.

Indosat would also issue bonds, as part of its Rp 10 trillion-sustaining bonds, in the middle of this year for debt refinancing and capital expenditure.

The company has secured a permit from the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to issue Rp 10 trillion in sustaining bonds, Rp 2.5 trillion of which was issued in December last year, comprising Rp 2.31 trillion in conventional bonds and Rp 190 billion in Islamic bonds.

In another development, Indosat has secured a new loan facility amounting to $300 million this year, consisting of $600 million-revolving loans maturing in two years from Mizuho Bank Ltd., $40 million-revolving loans maturing in two years from Citibank N.A., Jakarta and $200 million-revolving loans maturing in three years from HSBC, Jakarta.