JAKARTA/SINGAPORE : Indonesian palm oil producer PalmCo plans an initial public offering in Jakarta in the fourth quarter which could raise about $500 million, two sources familiar with the matter said.
PalmCo is a unit of state agricultural group Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) III and Bloomberg first reported the IPO, citing PTPN President Director Mohammad Abdul Ghani in an interview.
When contacted by Reuters on Monday, Bambang Agustian, PTPN’s corporate secretary, confirmed the company is targeting a fourth-quarter listing, but declined to comment on the proceeds.
“The IPO funds will be allocated for investment that is related to increasing company value, such as technical culture improvement, investing in downstream business and the use of renewable energy in relation to decarbonisation efforts,” he told Reuters.
The company has appointed Mandiri Sekuritas, DBS, BNP Paribas and CIMB as underwriters for PalmCo’s IPO, he added.
The listing will help to solidify Indonesia’s IPO market as one of the world’s hottest this year. First-time share sales raised $1.58 billion by the end of April, second only to China in the Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan, and ahead of traditional powerhouse Hong Kong, according to Refinitiv data.
PalmCo was carved out along with SugarCo, which handles PTPN’s sugar business, and SupportingCo, which manages assets ranging from coffee to tea plantations, as part of the Indonesian government’s national strategic plan.
It has a total of 560.078 hectares of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, according to its website.
Besides PalmCo, other state companies expected to go public in Indonesia this year include Pertamina Hulu Energi, the upstream arm of national energy firm Pertamina, which could raise at least 20 trillion rupiah ($1.35 billion), and fertiliser company Pupuk Kalimantan Timur which could raise $500 million.
Pertamina Geothermal Energy, another unit of Pertamina, raised 9.06 trillion rupiah in an IPO in February.
($1 = 14,860.0000 rupiah)
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