BLTA Requested Trading Halt for Debt Standsill

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Wednesday, 25 January 2012 09:14

Written by Ditto Levitt

Berlian Laju Tanker,BLTA Requested Trading Halt for Debt Standsill

JAKARTA, Indonesia Today - Shipping company PT Berlian Laju Tanker (BLTA) Tbk has requested for trading halt of its shares related to the upcoming debt standstill announcement.

Kevin Wong, finance director of BLTA, informed SINGAPORE Exchange this morning the reasons for trading halt is a debt standstill announcement. The company, however, provided no further detail on the debt standstill yet.

BLTA booked operating profit of US$59.37 million in nine months of 2011, dropped by 24.5% from the same period of 2010 on lower sales and profit margin. BLTA reported sales revenue of US$486 million in Jan-Sep 2011, down 1.6% from US$494 million in the corresponding period of 2010. Direct costs, meanwhile, increased slightly by 2.3% to US$405 million.

As a result, BLTA's gross profit declined 17% to US$80.99 million. Combined with higher operating expenses of US$21.6 million, the shipping company saw its operating profit dropped 24.5% to US$59.37 million.

Finance cost also surged from US$99 million to US$123.8 million, but changes in fair value of convertible bonds generated US$171 million of gain. As a result, BLTA booked substantially higher net profit of US$142 million against net loss of US$36 million in nine months of 2010.

Last month, Fitch Ratings downgraded Indonesia's Berlian Laju Tanker Tbk's (BLT) Long-Term Foreign- and Local-Currency Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) to 'CCC' from 'B-'.

The rating on BLT's USD400m senior unsecured notes due 2014, issued by BLT Finance B.V. and guaranteed by BLT, have also been downgraded to 'CC' from 'CCC' based on a recovery rating of 'RR5'. No rating Outlooks have been assigned.

The downgrades reflect BLT's heightened liquidity risk as it has yet to secure refinancing for the IDR1,153bn (USD127.4m) domestic bonds that are maturing in May and July 2012. While the company had USD105.7m of unencumbered cash and USD88.9m as debt-oriented mutual fund investments at end-September 2011, Fitch notes that it is required to maintain a minimum cash balance of USD75m to comply with bank loan covenants. (Indonesia Today)

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