Indonesian miner Aneka Tambang has sold shares worth $467.18 million in two of its subsidiaries to a unit of the world’s biggest electric vehicle battery maker, China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL).
In a disclosure published late on Thursday, Aneka Tambang, known as Antam, said it made the sales to Ningbo Contemporary Brunp Lygend Co Ltd (CBL) through the latter’s Hong Kong unit. CBL is a holding subsidiary of CATL, according to its website.
The sales, which were completed on Thursday, mean CBL controls 49% of PT Sumberdaya Arindo and 60% of PT Feni Haltim.
The sales are part of an agreement to set up joint ventures to develop an electric vehicle “ecosystem” in Indonesia, the statement said, which includes a plan to build a high-pressure acid leaching (HPAL) plant to process nickel ore into materials used in batteries.
The government of Indonesia, home to the world’s largest nickel reserves, has set an ambitious target of producing some 600,000 EVs by 2030. That would be more than 100 times the number sold in Indonesia in the first half of 2023.
Companies like China’s Neta EV brand, Japan’s Mitsubishi Motors and South Korea’s Hyundai Motors have already invested in Indonesia’s burgeoning EV battery industry. The country is also wooing Tesla and BYD.
(By Stanley Widianto and Bernadette Christina; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor)
