Noble buys US$ 45 million Atlas share

Nobel Group limited, Asia?s largest commodity trading company, said that it purchased 65 million shares of PT Atlas Resources (ARII) valued at US$45, jumping its total share of 10,1 percent in Atlas, the company said.

Managing director country head UBS Indonesia Rajiv Louis said that Noble bought 7.5 percent shares of Atlas at US$30 million through the debt conversion belong to Abdi Andre, the founder of Atlas Resource.

?Nobel also purchases 2.5 percent of Atlas shares through initial public offering with US$15 million,? he said as quoted by Investor Daily.

Finance director of Atlas Resources Dono Boestami said that the company would restructure contracts of coal supply to Noble.

Atlas had issued 650 million shares at Rp1,500 per share, raised total proceeds of Rp975 billion. The IPO was arranged by PT Indo Premier Securities and PT UBS Securities Indonesia.

Atlas, through its three subsidiaries PT Hanson Energy (Martapura), Berau Bara Energy and Diva Kencana Borneo produce 1.5 million tonnes of coal.

?We expected to produce 4.5 million tonnes of coal,? Dono said.

He said that the proceeds from IPO would be use to increase its shares in PT Bara karya Agung and PT Karya Borneo Agung from 20 percent to 50 percent. (*)