Indonesia's PT Merkada Battery To Price Its Share At IDR 795 For IPO

As per two people with firsthand knowledge of the situation, Indonesian nickel manufacturer PT Merdeka Battery Materials wants to price its shares at 795 rupiah apiece, at the top of the range for its initial public offering (IPO) to generate 8.75 trillion rupiah ($586.46 million).

Merdeka Battery's IPO would be the second largest in Indonesia this year, after PT Trimegah Bangun Persada raised 10 trillion rupiah.

Merdeka did not react quickly to a request for comment.

Merdeka Batteries, a subsidiary of Merdeka Copper Gold, sold the shares for a price range of 780 to 795 rupiah per share, according to a term sheet dated March 29.

According to one of the two sources, the IPO has drawn interest from sovereign wealth funds, insurance corporations, and long-only local and international investors, with pricing expected to be around the top of the range.

Because the information is not publicly available, neither could be identified.

According to the term sheet, Merdeka Batteries will go public on the Indonesian stock exchange on April 18, after the April 12 IPO debut of Trimegah Bangun Persada, popularly known as Harita Nickel.

As the government strives to privatise certain state-owned firms, Indonesia is one of the world's hottest IPO markets this year.

According to Refinitiv Eikon statistics, $828.1 million in share sales were issued in the first quarter, up from $202.3 million the previous year.

According to the term sheet, Merdeka Batteries intends to use the revenues of its IPO for debt repayment, operating capital, and capital expenditure.

UBS and Macquarie are the joint worldwide coordinators of the IPO, as well as joint bookrunners alongside Bank of America and HSBC, while Indo Premier Sekuritas and Trimegah Sekuritas Indonesia are the local underwriters.

Other prospective IPOs in Southeast Asia's largest economy this year include the proposed offering of Pertamina Hulu Energi, the upstream branch of state energy giant Pertamina, which may raise up to $2 billion, and Pupuk Kalimantan Timur, a state-owned fertiliser business that might raise $500 million.