Merdeka Battery Soars 15% on Debut as Investors Drawn to Indonesia's EV Push

INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING (IPO) - JAKARTA. Indonesian nickel company Merdeka Battery Materials surged as much as 15.1% in its trading debut on Tuesday after raising 8.75 trillion rupiah ($591.82 million) in the country's third largest initial public offering this year.

The positive debut signals investors' growing appetite for Indonesia's nickel processing sector, which is part of the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain.

Southeast Asia's largest economy has been stepping up its efforts to become a major player in the global EV supply chain by tapping its nickel reserves, which are the largest in the world.

Merdeka Battery opened at 805 rupiah on the Indonesian stock exchange, compared with its IPO price of 795 rupiah. The shares later jumped to 915 rupiah, before steadying at 900 rupiah. The local benchmark stock index rose 0.47%.

Merdeka Battery's peer, Trimegah Bangun Persada, also known as Harita Nickel, debuted on the local stock exchange last Wednesday with a positive showing after raising 10 trillion rupiah. The stock has climbed 14% versus its IPO price of 1,250 rupiah since its market debut.

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"The big interest in this IPO signals that investors are very optimistic about the prospects of nickel downstreaming and development of EV battery business that will be done by MBM," Merdeka Battery's CEO Devin Ridwan said at the market debut ceremony in Jakarta, referring to Merdeka Battery as MBM.

Merdeka Battery, a unit of Merdeka Copper Gold, priced its IPO at the top range of between 780 rupiah and 795 rupiah a share earlier this month following strong interest from sovereign wealth funds, insurance firms and long-only local and overseas investors.

It plans to use the IPO proceeds for loan repayment, working capital and capital expenditure, according to the IPO prospectus.

UBS and Macquarie are the joint global coordinators of the IPO, and are joint bookrunners along with Bank of America N and HSBC. The domestic underwriters are Indo Premier Sekuritas and Trimegah Sekuritas Indonesia.