WASHINGTON, D.C., Aug. 30 -- The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has signed an investment agreement with P.T. Samudera Indonesia (Samudera) to help finance the company's three-year, US$55 million expansion program. Samudera is a leading shipping and transport company in Indonesia. IFC is providing the company with an equity investment of US$5 million and a loan of US$15 million, of which US$12 million is for IFC's own account and US$3 million is for the account of a participant bank, Union Bank of Finland (Singapore) Ltd. Samudera will use the funding to acquire vessels and expand its freight-handling facilities. The main purpose of the expansion is to support the growth of Samudera's containerized common "feeder" service between major Indonesian ports and Singapore. The feeder service will represent about 50 percent of the company's business by the mid-1990s. Samudera is also expanding its "inter-island" cargo service between Jakarta and smaller Indonesian ports, as well as its specialized offshore l
ogistics and tanker shipping services. In addition the company is extending and improving its facilities for handling containers in several major ports and industrial sites, and is purchasing land-based transport and forwarding equipment. Samudera is one of the oldest and largest cargo shipping companies in Indonesia. Its activities include regional shipping, agency, forwarding, warehousing, container storage, and other transport-related services. It owns or charters more than 70 vessels, operates 24 offices covering all the main ports and commercial centers in the archipelago, and employs about 2,500 people. IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, is the largest multilateral source of equity and loan financing for private sector projects in developing countries.
