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span class="caption" style="width: 468px;">Beam me up: A technician works on microwave antennas at a base transceiver station (BTS) in Jakarta. JP/Ricky YudhistiraTelecommunication tower provider PT Solusi Tunas Pratama (SUPR) plans to spend Rp 500 billion (US$52.8 million) to further expand the company’s telecommunication towers, the backbone of its business, as well as to develop fiber optic infrastructure.

SUPR president director Nobel Tanihaha said in Jakarta on Monday that the company planned to increase the number of its Base Transceiver Station (BTS) towers to 2,000 towers from the current 1,600 towers.

The publicly-listed company will expand its BTS towers through the construction of its own telecommunication towers as well as acquisition of other telecommunication tower providers, he said.

“We are currently negotiating to acquire four small companies, all have more than 20 BTS towers” Nobel told reporters after an annual shareholders general meeting on Monday.

He refused to disclose the names of the companies and the value of the planned acquisition.

He added that a third of the capital expenditure would be used to develop the company’s fiber optic service this year.

Earlier this year, STP has acquired PT Platinum Teknologi, which owns an approximate 400-kilometer fiber optic network in Jakarta to meet the growing demand of fast Internet connection and data transfers in
the city.

“With the existence of the fiber optic network, we can enhance our additional solution offered to answer to the telecommunication infrastructure issues in densely urban areas, especially Jakarta,” he said.

The funding for the expansion will be derived from the combination of the company’s internal cash, the money left from its initial public offering (IPO) last year and bank loans, said SUPR finance director Juliawati Gunawan.

Following the IPO, the company’s ownership changed with PT Kharisma Indah Ekaprima holding 78.33 percent ownership, followed by the public (16.69 percent) and PT Titan Technology (5 percent).

Juliawati added the company expected its revenues to grow by 50 percent to Rp 496.35 billion this year. Last year, the company reaped Rp 330.9 billion in revenue, up 15.5 percent from Rp 286.4 billion a year earlier.

The surge in revenues was in line with the growth in the number of tenants which rented SUPR’s towers, standing at 2,114 tenants last year compared to 1,571 tenants in 2010.

The company however, saw its net profit plunge to Rp 134.3 billion last year, a 41.7 percent drop from Rp 230.4 billion in 2010.

SUPR’s main business activities are operating and leasing of BTS or telecommunications tower and telecommunication facilities to major cellphone operators and telecommunication companies.

The company’s long list of clients include PT Natrindo Telepon Selular (NTS), Bakrie Telecom (BTEL), PT FirstMedia (FIRST), PT Indosat (ISAT), PT SMART Telekom (SMART), PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (TLKM), PT Telekomunikasi Selular (TSEL), PT Hutchison CP Telecommunication (HCPT) and PT Exelcomindo Pratama (XL).

In terms of towers owned, SUPR still trails behind its rivals PT Sarana Menara Nusantara (TOWR), which owned 6,363 towers in 2011 and PT Tower Bersama Infrastructure (TBIG) with 4,868 towers during the same period.

TBIG however, is expected to overtake PT Sarana Menara Nusantara (TOWR) to be Indonesia’s largest independent tower operator in terms of the number of towers, after a recent $159 million deal to buy 2,500 telecommunication towers owned by PT Indosat (ISAT). (han)