Newmont plans to hold IPO in Q1 2011

Copper and gold producer PT Newmont Nusa Tenggara (NNT), the Indonesian unit of US mining giant Newmont Corp., is planning to hold an initial public offering (IPO) in the first quarter of 2011.

NNT?s president director Martiono Hadianto told reporters that the company plans to sell a 10 percent stake via the IPO in Indonesia bourse.

The stake sale will be conducted after the company?s 2010 divestment obligation to government completed. "We want to complete the 7 percent stake divestment process first before the IPO," he said.

A 1986 mining contract requires NNT?s foreign shareholders, Newmont and Japan's Sumitomo, to divest as much as 31 percent of their shares to local companies.

By far, the two companies have divested 24 percent of the required shares to PT Multi Daerah Bersaing, a consortium of the regional administrations and the Bakrie Group. Currently, Newmont and Sumitomo are in the negotiation with the government for divestment of the final 7 percent shares scheduled for this year.

On Thursday, NNT's shareholders, except for domestic partner PT Pukuafu Indah, gave their approval for the listing.

NNT current shareholders are Newmont Indonesia Limited (31.5 percent); Sumitomo's subsidiary Nusa Tenggara Mining Corporation (24.5 percent), PT Pukuafu lndah (20 percent), and PT Multi Daerah Bersaing (24 percent). (godang)