Jardine C&C goes for gold with US$540 million Indonesian gold mine buy
Astra International will acquire Arafura Surya Alam through two of United Tractors’ wholly-owned units
[SINGAPORE] Jardine Cycle & Carriage on Monday (Sep 15) announced that two of its indirect subsidiaries have signed a deal to buy Arafura Surya Alam (ASA) for US$540 million.
Subsidiary Danusa Tambang Nusantara (DTN) will purchase 99.99 per cent of ASA’s total issued share capital from J Resources Nusantara (JRN), while Energia Prima Nusantara (EPN) will buy the remaining one share in ASA and one share of Mulia Bumi Persada (MBP) from Jimmy Budiarto.
The MBP share represents about 0.2 per cent of its total issued share capital, with the remaining 99.8 per cent held by ASA. The two companies will now be indirect subsidiaries of the Jardine C&C group.
Both DTN and EPN are wholly owned subsidiaries of construction machinery and mining company United Tractors, which is listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX). Jardine C&C’s Jakarta-listed subsidiary Astra International owns 59.5 per cent of United Tractors.
Jardine C&C said the proposed acqusition aims to expand United Tractors’ business in the mineral sector.
Since its incorporation, ASA has been a non-operating company with non-meaningful financial information, said the bourse filing. It is intended to be a gold mining company and holds a mining business for the 4,000-hectare Doup mining block in the province of North Sulawesi, Indonesia.
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The block holds 1.57 million ounces of gold deposits and 3.1 million ounces of gold resources. Its sole asset is the licence for the block, which is a brownfield site to be developed by United Tractors.
Gold was at US$3637.87 per ounce at the time of the announcement. The metal is up nearly 40 per cent year to date.
DTN acts as a holding company for United Tractors’ mineral business and is currently focused on expanding its business in gold and nickel. Meanwhile, EPN is the holding company for the development of renewable energy for United Tractors.
ASA’s enterprise value of US$540 million was determined after arm’s length negotiations, said the filing, and will be fully funded by internal resources of the United Tractors group.
Jardine C&C added that the acqusition is subject to approval from the regulator, creditors of JRN and ASA, as well as the shareholders of JRN parent company J Resources Asia Pasifik. The final date of the fulfillment of the conditions is to be no later than Dec 23, 2025.
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