Korea's LX International buys Indonesian nickel miner for $100 mn

South Korean trading firm LX International Corp. said on Tuesday that it has acquired a 60% stake in Indonesian miner PT Adhi Kartiko Pratama (AKP) for 132.9 billion won ($99.8 million) to secure key minerals for secondary batteries.

The trading firm, a unit of Korean logistics conglomerate LX Group, recently established an Indonesian subsidiary with a 135.4 billion won investment. The company said in its Jan. 16 regulatory filings that it has completed the deal through the new entity in the Southeast Asian country.

LX International will secure the entire resources from PT AKP’s mines, which have reserves of 36 million tons of mineable nickel. The volume of the mineral is sufficient for batteries for 7 million electric vehicles, the trading firm said.

The mines span 2,000 hectares in Morowali Industrial Park on Sulawesi Island and have great access to a haul road, pit, port and nickel smelters, an LX International official said.

The transaction follows LX International’s announcement on the deal last November.

The trading firm is accelerating investment in EV battery materials such as nickel and lithium. It will focus on its eco-friendly businesses like battery ingredients and renewable energy as new growth drivers in the long term, Chief Executive Yoon Chun-sung said last year.

Write to Hyung-Kyu Kim at khk@hankyung.com

Jihyun Kim edited this article.