Marubeni to Join Group to Buy Indonesian Coal Miners

Tokyo, March 18 (Jiji Press)–Japanese trading house Marubeni Corp. is planning to join an international consortium to buy two coal mining firms from Indonesia’s largest coal miner, PT Bumi Resources Tbk, company officials said Saturday.

Renaissance Capital, a local investment firm that is leading the consortium, has obtained priority negotiation rights after offering to buy Bumi’s mining subsidiaries PT Arutmin Indonesia and PT Kaltim Prima Coal, as well as a Bumi special purpose firm PT IndoCoal Resources, for a total of 3.2 billion dollars.

Marubeni will decide on the size of its stake in the buyout, expected to come between 20 pct and 50 pct, depending on its assessments of investment efficiency, the officials said.

The deal will allow Marubeni to meet growing coal demand in China and other parts of Asia.

In February, Marubeni announced that it will buy rights over crude oil and natural gas production in the Gulf of Mexico for 1.15 billion dollars, the largest investment for the company in a single project.

The Bumi buyout could exceed the Mexican deal in terms of value.END