Archi to revive IPO plan next year

By Thomas Sembiring

Gold mining firm PT Archipelago Indonesia (Archi) aims to revive a stalled initial public offering (IPO) plan next year as the overall commodity market environment is expected to have already recovered.

?Probably, (the IPO) will be in the second semester of 2017,? said Corporate Secretary of Archi, Edgar Affandi to Petromindo.com on Monday.

He said that the company was seeking to sell shares to the public via the IPO in a bid to raise funds to help finance exploration and expansion programs, and repay debts to Bank Mandiri.

Company Finance Director Edwin Gunawan said that Archi is currently in the process of selecting the underwriters for the planned IPO.

The company first announced the IPO plan in June of last year, but it has been delayed a couple of times due to the commodity downturn. Archi said in its prospectus published last year that it wanted to raise around US$350 million from the sale of 43 percent shares via an IPO. Edwin, however, said that the company now wants to raise more than $1 billion from the IPO.

Archi currently has 100 percent shares in two producing gold mine in North Sulawesi, namely PT Meares Soputan Mining and PT Tambang Tondano Nusajaya. In 2013, both mines produced 152,000 ounces of gold equivalent in 2013.

The company also has a 35 percent stake in ASX-listed mining firm Augur Resources Limited, which owns a 45 percent stake in gold and copper project in Wonogiri, Central Java.

Archi plans to use part of the IPO proceeds to acquire PT Smart Mining Resources (SMR), which controls 55 percent of the Wonogiri project. SMR is owned by tycon Peter Sondakh, founding owner of Rajawali Group, the holding company of Archi. When the acquisition is completed, Archi will effectively control 70 percent stake in the gold and copper project.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak