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*Bumi Becomes Biggest Indonesian Company on Coal Find (Update1) * By Aloysius Unditu June 9 (Bloomberg) -- PT Bumi Resources<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=BUMI%3AIJ>rose 7 percent in Jakarta to overtake PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=TLKM%3AIJ>as the country's biggest company by value after it discovered new coal reserves amid record prices of the fuel. Asia's biggest exporter of coal used in power stations discovered 442 million of tons of coal on Borneo island, which may increase the company's reserves by 31.5 percent this year, Bumi said in a statement in Jakarta today. The stock <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=BUMI%3AIJ>closed at a record 8,450 rupiah and has gained 41 percent this year. Asian buyers are looking to Indonesia to meet their coal needs after export cuts in China, the biggest producer of the fuel and infrastructure bottlenecks in Australia led to prices more than doubling in a year. Coal at Australia's Newcastle port, a benchmark for Asia, rose to a record $158.53 a metric ton in the week ended June 6, according to the globalCOAL NEWC Index<http://www.globalcoal.com/>. ``The upgrade follows recent coal price strength, which has increased the economic viability of Bumi's coal exploitation and enabled the company to classify additional coal as mineable,'' Andreas Bokkenheuser<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Andreas+Bokkenheuser&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>, an analyst with the local unit of UBS AG, said in a note to investors. ``Based on Bumi's 2007 production of 56 million tons, the upgrade adds approximately eight years to the company's reserve life.'' Bumi's discovery will increase its reserves to a minimum of 1.84 billion tons, from 1.402 billion tons as of October, the company said today. `Substantially Higher' ``When Bumi plans to declare its new augmented marketable coal reserve as of June 30 this year, this final figure is likely to be substantially higher than the figure of 1.84 billion tons presently indicated,'' it said. Bumi ended Telekomunikasi's 13-year reign as Indonesia's most<http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/quote?ticker=JCI%3AIND>valuable company. The coal producer is valued at 163.9 trillion rupiah ($18 billion) while the telephone services provider, which had been the country's biggest company by value since it began trading in November 1995, has a market value of 161.3 trillion rupiah. Bumi, a property developer till 2000, bought 80 percent of PT Arutmin Indonesia from BHP Billiton in 2001 for $148.5 million and 20 percent from Bakrie Group for $37 million. Two years later, Bumi bought PT Kaltim Prima Coal for $500 million from BP Plc and Rio Tinto Group, to become a coal mining company. To contact the reporter on this story: Aloysius Unditu<http://search.bloomberg.com/search?q=Aloysius+Unditu&site=wnews&client=wnews&proxystylesheet=wnews&output=xml_no_dtd&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&filter=p&getfields=wnnis&sort=date:D:S:d1>in Jakarta at [EMAIL PROTECTED] *Last Updated: June 9, 2008 06:12 EDT*
