By Bernadette Christina, Fransiska Nangoy and Yantoultra Ngui
JAKARTA/SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Amman Mineral Internasional opened higher in its stock market debut on Friday after the country’s second-largest copper and gold producer raised 10.73 trillion rupiah ($713.43 million) in Indonesia’s biggest initial public offering (IPO) this year. Amman Mineral’s stock opened at 1,745 rupiah, almost 3% higher than its IPO price of 1,695 rupiah a share, on the Indonesia stock exchange, with shares trading at 1,735 rupiah at 0230 GMT.
The Jakarta-based company’s IPO was the biggest since the $1.1 billion listing of tech firm GoTo in April 2022.
Amman Mineral, the country’s second-biggest copper and gold producer after Freeport Indonesia, plans to use the proceeds to repay debt and fund several projects, including a $980 million copper smelter it aims to complete in May 2024.
Amman Minerals CEO Alexander Ramlie said on Friday the company’s business prospects were solid because of rising copper demand and the metal’s importance in the global transition to renewable energy.
Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, is stepping up the use of renewable energy.
The firm debut by Amman Mineral could also bode well for upcoming listings in Indonesia, one of the world’s hottest IPO markets this year, amid a government drive to privatise some state-owned enterprises.
First-time share sales in Indonesia have raised $2.2 billion as of June, second only to China in the Asia-Pacific region and ahead of traditional powerhouse Hong Kong, according to Refinitiv data.
Next in the pipeline this month is a $160 million IPO by Indonesia’s largest cinema chain operator Nusantara Sejahtera Raya.
Other upcoming IPOs in Indonesia include the upstream arm of state energy company Pertamina, Pertamina Hulu Energi, which could raise at least 20 trillion rupiah.
State-owned fertiliser company Pupuk Kalimantan Timur and palm oil producer PalmCo could raise $500 million each.
(Reporting by Fransiska Nangoy and Bernadette Christina in Jakarta, Yantoultra Ngui in Singapore; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Himani Sarkar and Jamie Freed)
