Berau Coal to be listed on Singapore bourse next year

Upon completion of the process of acquisition of PT Armadian Tritunggal, the owner of East Kalimantan-based coal producer PT Berau Coal which owns 90 percent stake, Rizal Risjad will sell around 30 percent of Berau?s shares on the Singapore bourse, Bisnis Indonesia newspaper reported Tuesday.

One executive who knows about the transaction said the US$200 million value initial public offering (IPO) is scheduled for the first semester of the next year. Rizal completed the 100 percent acquisition deal process last Friday.

?Entering into the stock exchange is a strategy of Armadian to repay its loan to Merrill Lynch, which it borrowed to pay for the Armadian acquisition,? the executive was quoted as saying by Bisnis in Jakarta on Monday.

Armadian is owned by Rizaql Risjad, the son of 1990s conglomerate Ibraham Risjad, David Yahya ? belongs to Risjad Ibrahim Group ? Johan Lensa and Henry Ngadimin. Johan Lensa is the owner of PT Bumi Makmur, Berau Coal?s sub contractor, and Henry is from the family of the Gudang Gram Group.

With the completion of Armadian?s acquisition, Rizal has full control on the Armadian, especially after the purchase of the shares of David Yahya and Henry Ngadimin.

Merrill Lynch has arranged a $280 million loan to Rizal for the acquisition of Armadian.

Berau sold around 9.5 million tons of coal last year, of which about 70 percent were exported to its traditional markets, such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan, while the remaining portion for domestic markets. (*)