Companies From Sinarmas Group Owned By Conglomerate Eka Tjipta Widjaja Disburse Rp426 Billion To Purchase Coal Mining Shares In Australia

JAKARTA - A company from the Sinarmas group belonging to the late Eka Tjipta Widjaja conglomerate, Golden Energy and Resources Ltd (GEAR) has added its ownership to Golden Investments (Australia) Pte Ltd or GIAPL, which owns coal mining assets in Queensland, Australia. GEAR poured funds around 30 million US dollars on this action.

In this transaction, GEAR has signed a share purchase agreement with Acsend Investment Fund SPC to acquire Ascend Global's approximately 20.33 percent stake in GIAPL. Currently, GEAR only controls 79.67 percent of GIAPL's shares.

With the acquisition transaction, GEAR will control all or 100 percent of GIAPL's shares. Meanwhile, GIAPL owns about 75.33 percent of the total shares of Stanmore Resources, an issuer listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

"The acquisition is expected to be completed within seven working days from the date of this announcement and upon completion, GIAPL will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of GEAR," wrote GEAR management on the Singapore Stock Exchange (SGX), quoted Sunday 12 December.

GEAR will pay cash to Ascend Global for the US$30 million acquisition of GIAPL. This acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on GEAR's earnings per share and is expected to result in a decrease in the company's consolidated net tangible assets by approximately 6.4 percent for the current financial year ending December 31, 2021.

Ascend Global is an independent third party not associated with any of the directors or shareholders of GEAR. Stanmore Coal, which is controlled by GEAR through GIAPL, purchased the Millennium and Mavis Downs Mine coal mines located in Moranbah, Queensland, Australia in July 2021.

This transaction was carried out through a joint venture between Stanmore and M Resources, namely MetRes Pty Ltd. The Millennium and Mavis Downs Mine coal mines were purchased from Peabody Energy Australia.

The Millennium and Mavis Downs mines are located in the vicinity of Moranbah, near the Isaac Downs Stanmore Coal project.

The mine has historically produced HCC64 grade hard coking coal and high-calorie coal. This is considered to be a complementary product to the existing Stanmore Coal mine.