Electric vehicle battery manufacturer PT Merdeka Battery Materials Tbk or MBMA has appointed Andrew Phillip Starkey as director of the company. This decision was taken at the recent Annual General Meeting of Shareholders (AGMS).

President Director of PT Merdeka Battery Materials Tbk Devin Ridwan said Andrew's appointment was made to strengthen the management structure in managing the increasingly large MBMA business. By consolidating the management structure and supported by Andrew's track record in the investment and mining sectors, it is hoped that it will make it easier for MBMA to maximize future opportunities to improve the Company's performance.

Andrew himself has joined the Merdeka Group since 2022. Previously, he served as Managing Director at Macquarie Group, Vice President at Goldman Sachs and Executive Director at Presidio Capital. He also co-founded Pierfront Capital and served as Managing Director from 2016 to 2022.

"With the new management, we are committed to carrying out the business plan that has been carefully prepared, to be quoted on Saturday (1/7/2023).

The company's AGMS for the 2022 financial year also approved a number of strategic decisions, including approval of the Annual Report along with ratification of the Consolidated Financial Statements for the 2022 financial year.

With the appointment of Andrew, the composition of the MBMA board of directors after the AGMS is as follows.

• President Director: Devin Ridwan
  
• Vice President Director: Jason Laurence Greive
• Director: Titien Supeno
• Director: Andrew Phillip Starkey

Additional information, the company is a business entity PT Merdeka Copper Gold Tbk or MDKA which recently went public on the stock exchange in April 2023. Devin said, the realization of IPO funds of around IDR 92 trillion by the end of May 2023 had reached 53%, of which were used for early repayment of all principal debt to PT Merdeka Copper Gold Tbk and ING Bank NV, Singapore branch, each of USD 225 million and USD 75 million or equivalent to IDR 4.46 trillion.

Other uses of the IPO funds are for the Company's working capital such as employee fees, professional fees and financial costs, and to finance the working capital of PT Zhao Hui Nickel (ZHN) (a subsidiary of the Company), such as the purchase of main raw materials, supporting raw materials, electricity costs. , as well as employee costs.

At the AGMS, the shareholders also approved the use of net profit for the 2022 financial year, the majority of which will be allocated to strengthen the company's capital. In 2022, MBMA recorded revenue of USD 455.74 million with profit for the year of USD 37.85 million. As of December 31, 2022, the company's total assets have reached USD 2.42 billion. 

The company also looks optimistically at 2023. The increase in revenue is projected to come from the operation of the ZHN Rotary Kiln Electric Furnace (RKEF) smelter plant which has a target installed capacity of 50,000 tons of Ni in the form of Nickel Pig Iron (NPI) per year, the AIM project and PT Huaneng Metal Industry (HNMI), a high-tech conversion facility. -grade nickel matte (HGNM), whose 60% stake was recently acquired by the company.

While the ZHN RKEF smelter and the AIM project are expected to start production after the construction process is completed in the second half of 2023. HNMI will produce HGNM containing more than 70% nickel by processing low-grade nickel matte produced by the RKEF smelter. Nickel matte is the main raw material for battery precursors and Class 1 Nickel. HNMI is currently in commercial operation and is expected to start making a positive contribution to MBMA's revenue in the second half of 2023.

Just so you know, in 2022 MBMA's main source of income will come from the sale of NPI to foreign and domestic markets, amounting to USD 270.33 million and USD 185.4 million respectively. The NPI production comes from the RKEF smelters owned by PT Cahaya Smelter Indonesia and PT Bukit Smelter Indonesia, each of which has an installed capacity of 19,000 tons of Ni in the form of NPI per year. So that with the operation of the RKEF ZHN smelter, MBMA's total installed capacity will reach 88,000 tons of Ni per year.

Image source: merdekacoppergold.com/

Source: https://akurat.co/mbma-tunjuk-andrew-phillip-starkey-jadi-direksi