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Medco to refinance debts, issue Singapore-dollar notes

Oil and gas company Medco Energi Internasional is looking to refinance its maturing debts of US$140 million through bank loans this year, and is looking to issue up to S$500 million ($370

Anggi M. Lubis (The Jakarta Post)
Wed, April 22, 2015

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Medco to refinance debts, issue Singapore-dollar notes

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il and gas company Medco Energi Internasional is looking to refinance its maturing debts of US$140 million through bank loans this year, and is looking to issue up to S$500 million ($370.64 million) in medium-term notes as alternative future refinancing for its outstanding debts.

The publicly listed firm'€™s finance director, Lany Wong, said on Monday that her company had recently paid off $40 million of its $183.7 million debts that were due this year. Around $180 million of which was granted by state-run Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI).

The money used to refinance the debt came from a $1.5 billion loan facility the company secured last year to help fund its liquefied natural gas (LNG) project. That leaves the company with debts of $143.7 million maturing in July this year. Lany said the company might resort to new bank loans to pay off the remainder.

'€œWe will refinance the debts through bank loans, probably from local lenders,'€ she said, declining to disclose the potential lenders. Further, the company is also planning to make its Singapore-dollar bond debut amounting to S$500 million, of which its subsidiary Medco Energi Global will be the note issuer.

ANZ, DBS and Mitsubishi UFG have been appointed as arrangers of the offer, which will allow the company to issue debts in various forms, including hybrids and floating-rate notes in Singapore dollars and other currencies, Reuters reports.

Lany said her company aimed at securing alternative financing through the Singapore-dollar notes, aside from the rupiah and US-dollar-based financing the company usually opted for.

She did not elaborate as to when the notes would be issued, the coupons or other details regarding the plan, simply saying that whether or not Medco would proceed with the offer would depend on the market and the company'€™s needs. '€œWe will use the notes, if issued, for future refinancing, and not for our current maturing debts,'€ she explained. Medco'€™s total liabilities, according to its 2014 financial report, stood at $1.78 billion as of December, with current liabilities amounting to $467.74 million.

Its total assets, according to the report, were $2.7 billion, with $206.64 million cash and cash equivalents.

Medco Energi '€” which operates eight blocks in Indonesia as well as blocks in six other countries '€” saw its oil and gas revenues decline by around 15 percent to $701 million. Its profits for the year slumped by around 14 percent to $13.7 million last year.

The plunging revenues and profits, Medco president director Lukman Mahfoedz said, were due to decreasing production, which was down by nearly 10 percent from 62 million barrels of oil equivalents per day (mboepd) in 2013 to 56 mboepd last year.

Lukman said the slump was due to the natural decline in the company'€™s reserves, which amounted to 7 percent last year. The figure was below the average declines in the sector of 20 to 25 percent.

The decreasing production, he added, was also triggered by the company'€™s decision to return Sembakung block in North Kalimantan to state-owned energy company Pertamina after a 20-year contract.

The company also saw its average oil prices drop by around 9.6 percent year-on-year to $97.83 per barrel last year, while its gas prices were up by 9.2 percent to $5.6 per million British thermal units (mmbtu).

Oil accounted for 56 percent of the company'€™s total output, with gas making up the remainder.

Lukman, however, sad that he was optimistic his company would at least maintain its 2014 performance in 2015, thanks to its Senoro Upstream project in Central Sulawesi, which is expected to produce 310 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) of gas starting in May.


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