Indonesia's Telkom plans $320 mln share buyback

JAKARTA, May 26 (Reuters) - Indonesia's largest telecoms firm, PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk (TLKM.JK), said on Monday it plans to buy back up to 3 trillion rupiah ($322.3 million) worth of shares, or 1.9 percent of its share capital.

The amount is lower than the $500 million figure a senior company official indicated earlier.

Telkom said in a statement it intends to return excess cash to its shareholders and help support the company's share price which has been depressed by a recent fall in the Indonesian stock market.

Telkom's share price has fallen 15.3 percent since the start of the year, underperforming the Indonesia Composite Index's .JKSE 10 percent fall, as investors worried about rising competition in the mobile phone industry.

But the company's mobile phone arm, PT Telekomunikasi Selular (Telkomsel), recorded strong growth in the first quarter.

Telkomsel, owned 65 percent by Telkom and 35 percent by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (STEL.SI), has more than 50 percent of Indonesia's mobile phone market.

The number of subscribers in the world's fourth-most populous nation is expected to jump to 120 million this year, from around 90 million last year.

The company, which has an $18.6 billion market capitalisation, plans to seek shareholder approval for the plan in a shareholders meeting on June 20.

On Friday Telkom reported a 5.4 percent rise in its first-quarter net profit to 3.21 trillion rupiah, missing analysts' forecast of 3.37 trillion rupiah. ($1 = 9,308 rupiah) (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, editing by Sugita Katyal and Louise Heavens)