Conglomerates Edwin Soeryadjaya And Sandiaga Uno's Merdeka Copper Gold Injects US$225 Million Funds Into Merdeka Battery Materials

JAKARTA - The mining company of the Saratoga Group owned by conglomerates Edwin Soeryadjaya and Sandiaga Uno, PT Merdeka Copper Gold Tbk (MDKA) reported an affiliated transaction with its subsidiary, PT Merdeka Battery Materials (MBM), in the form of loan funds worth US$225 million.

In the disclosure of information on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) website, quoted on Thursday, August 4, MDKA agreed to provide loan funds with a value of 225 million US dollars. From the transaction, MDKA replaced the original lender to fund the MBM Group's general working capital.

MBM itself is a company owned by MDKA by 55.26 percent, which carries out holding company business activities and other management consulting activities. The US$25 million fund was sourced from 25.13 percent of the total consolidated equity as of March 31, 2022, and 28.87 percent of the company's total annual consolidated equity until December 31, 2021.

"This transaction is a material transaction because the transaction value exceeds 20 percent but is less than 50 percent of the company's equity based on the company's consolidated financial statements," explained MDKA management.

In addition, this transaction is also included in the affiliate transaction because there are several members of the Board of Commissioners and Board of Directors of MBK who also serve as Directors of MDKA. From this transaction, MBM will be charged interest from the compound benchmark interest rate, and a margin of 4.25 percent.

Meanwhile, the company is given an additional margin of 2.50 percent which will be applied only to the portion of the loan provided by MDKA and will be accumulated and paid by MBM on the maturity date according to the agreement, which is September 30, 2026.

"With the implementation of this transaction, MDKA can provide funding support for MBM, so that MBM can run its business activities more optimally and is expected to have a positive impact on the Company as MBM's indirect shareholder," concluded MDKA's management.