Indonesia's Indofood says plans $163 million bond issue

JAKARTA, April 21 (Reuters) - Indonesia's PT Indofood Sukses Makmur Tbk INDF.JK, the world's largest maker of instant noodles, said on Monday it plans to raise 1.5 trillion rupiah ($163 million) by selling five-year bonds by June.

Indofood, which is controlled by Indonesia's Salim family through Hong Kong-listed First Pacific Co Ltd (0142.HK: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), said that most of the proceeds from the rupiah-denominated bonds would be used to repay debt which matures in June.

"We will use around 82 percent, or about 1.23 trillion rupiah, to repay our bonds issued in 2003 which will mature on June 10. The rest will be used for working capital," the company said in a statement.

Indofood, which has a market capitalisation of $2.4 billion, has appointed DBS Vickers Securities, Danareksa Sekuritas, ING Securities Indonesia, Kim Eng Securities, and Mandiri Sekuritas as underwriters and managers for the bond issue.

Indonesians are among the world's biggest consumers of instant noodles, getting through an average of 60 packs per person a year.

About 92 billion packs of instant noodles were consumed in the world in 2006, including about 47 billion in China, 14 billion in Indonesia, 14 billion in the United States, and 5.4 billion in Japan, according to industry figures. ($1=9,180 rupiah) (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, editing by Sara Webb)