Indosat mulls StarOne spin-off plan (Indonesia)

Indosat, Indonesia’s second largest telecoms group by subscribers is considering spinning off its code division multiple access (CDMA) unit StarOne in a bid to make the group more competitive.

According to the Telco’s President Harry Sasongko, Indosat is currently conducting an internal review to gain momentum as the sector has shown an upward trend, with most of the nation’s 230 million people having access to a mobile phone. Although no decision has yet been taken, a constant slide of subscribers from StarOne has reportedly hampered Indosat’s overall growth, which is dominated by its cellular business. The idea of spinning off StarOne has been under consideration since 2008. They will finalize a decision as soon as the assessment is done.

Indosat also seeks refinance debts in 2011 and 2012 using the remaining funds it raised from bond sales. Indosat has US$420 million left from 2010′s bond sales which generated a total of US$650 million.