Jardine unit buys Indonesian gold mining company for $690.77m

The mining company holds 1.57 million ounces of gold reserves.

Jardine Cycle & Carriage Limited (JC&C), an investment holding company of Jardine Matheson, has proposed to acquire Indonesian gold mining company PT Arafura Surya Alam (ASA) for an aggregate amount of $690.77m (US$540m)

JC&C said its indirect subsidiary, PT Danusa Tambang Nusantara (DTN), has entered into a conditional sale and purchase agreement with PT J Resources Nusantara (JRN) to acquire 2,331,139 shares in the capital of ASA from JRN.

The shares represent about 99.99996% of ASA’s total issued share capital.

Separately, JC&C said another indirect subsidiary, PT Energia Prima Nusantara (EPN), has signed a conditional sale and purchase agreement with Jimmy Budiarto to acquire the remaining one ASA share — representing roughly 0.00004% of ASA’s issued capital — as well as one share in PT Mulia Bumi Persada (MBP).

The MBP share represents about 0.2% of MBP’s issued capital. ASA owns the remaining 99.8% of MBP.

ASA, incorporated in Indonesia, is intended to be a gold mining company. It holds an Operation Production Mining Business Licence (IUP-OP) for the 4,000-hectare Doup Block in North Sulawesi, which includes the Benteng, Panang and nearby deposits. These have JORC-compliant proven and probable reserves of 1.57 million ounces of gold within total resources of 3.11 million ounces.

Since its incorporation, ASA has remained non-operational with minimal financial activity. Its sole asset is the IUP-OP for the brownfield Doup Block.