23/07/2025

BIZ & FINANCE WEDNESDAY | JULY 23, 2025

/thesuntelegram FOLLOW / Malaysian Paper

ON TELEGRAM m RAM

16

Indonesia plans US$8b refineries deal with US firm

Deep-sea miner TMC gets veiled warning from global authority NEW YORK: The International Seabed Authority (ISA) on Monday issued a veiled warning to Canadian firm The Metals Company (TMC) over its plans to launch deep-sea mining operations in inter national waters via US authorisation. In a text adopted on Monday, the ISA’s executive body urged its legal and technical commission to “pay specific attention” to companies whose activities could be in “potential non-compliance” with international law. The wording was a clear reference to TMC, which turned its back on the ISA and its jurisdiction in filing a US application in April for a deep sea mining permit. The move came after US President Donald Trump issued an executive order calling for his administration to unilaterally issue mining licences – including in international waters. If approved, it would be the first such licence issued by any country or body. Should the ISA commission find TMC in violation of international law, the company could lose its exploration permits pre viously issued by the authority. Nori (Nauru Ocean Resources Inc.), a subsidiary of TMC, has held since 2011 an exploration contract for an area of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone in the Pacific Ocean, which expires in one year. “It must be clear by now to TMC and its subsidiaries that they face a significant risk of losing their exploration contracts,” said Matthew Gianni of the Deep Sea Con servation Coalition, an NGO alliance. – AFP LOS ANGELES TIMES TO GO PUBLIC WITHIN THE NEXT YEAR, SAYS OWNER BENGALURU: The Los Angeles Times newspaper plans to go public within the next year, its owner Patrick Soon Shiong said in a television interview on Monday, in an effort to give the public ownership of the 143-year-old publication. “We’re literally going to take LA Times public and allow it to be democratised and allow the public to have ownership of this paper,“ Soon Shiong said on The Daily Show in a taped interview with the host, Jon Stewart. The billionaire owner of the newspaper said the model would resemble the public ownership structure of the NFL’s Green Bay Packers and that a partner organisation was working on the structure. Soon-Shiong, who is also the founder of ImmunityBio, bought the LA Times along with other newspapers in 2018 for US$500 million (RM2.1 billion) from Tronc. – Reuters TEMASEK MANDATES 4 BANKS FOR OFFSHORE RENMINBI BONDS SINGAPORE: Singapore’s Temasek Holdings has mandated multiple banks for the proposed issuance of 5-year, 10 year and 30-year offshore renminbi multi-tranche bonds, according to an announcement yesterday. The four banks, Credit Agricole, DBS Bank, HSBC and Standard Chartered, are joint lead managers and joint bookrunners for the proposed notes, to be issued by Temasek Financial (I) and guaranteed by Temasek Holdings, the mandate said. The notes are expected to be rated Aaa (stable) by Moody’s and AAA (stable) by S&P, similiar with the guarantor. Size of the issuance was not disclosed in the mandate announce ment. The last time Temasek priced offshore renminbi bonds was in August 2024. – Reuters

BR I E F S

tariff rate could boost Indonesia’s gross domestic product growth by 0.5 percentage points, the presentation said. Apple and General Electric were also mentioned in the presentation as US firms that will benefit from relaxed local content requirements for US information and com munication technology goods and medical devices. Meanwhile, Indonesia’s mining ministry has drawn up a list of 18 projects worth US$38.6 billion to develop the country’s natural resources and handed them over to Danantara yesterday for potential investment. Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia said the fund had the capacity to finance and manage the projects. The priority projects include eight projects for the processing of minerals and coal, two which support energy security, while the rest concern energy transition and the processing of agriculture and fishery products, Bahlil said at the handover ceremony. The government has already carried out initial studies on the proposed projects, and transferred to Danantara for further assessment and implementation. The list of projects include oil refineries and storage facilities, a plant to produce solar panels, biofuels for jets, as well as iron and alumina smelters, ministry officials said. Danantara, which recently secured a US$10 billion credit line, will invest in the projects if they meet the fund’s investment criteria, its CEO Rosan Roeslani told reporters. – Reuters

o Potential contract with KBR Inc to build 17 modular facilities, economic ministry presentation shows

JAKARTA: Indonesian sovereign wealth fund Danantara plans to sign an US$8 billion (RM33.8 billion) engineering, procurement and construction contract with US engineering firm KBR Inc to build 17 modular refineries, according to two sources familiar with the matter and an official economic ministry presentation seen by Reuters. The contract is part of last week’s trade pact between Indonesia and the United States that led to a reduction in the threatened US proposed tariff rate to 19% from 32%. Indonesian Economic Minister Airlangga Hartarto, the chief negotiator of the deal, disclosed the modular refinery plan during a closed-door briefing to Indonesian business leaders on Monday evening. Two sources confirmed the planned deal was mentioned in a presentation that Reuters also reviewed. Danantara and KBR Inc, formerly known as Kellogg Brown & Root, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. No further details were given on the proposed agreement. While some details of the trade deal between the US and Indonesia have been made public, such as increased purchases of US energy, agriculture and commercial aircraft, the proposed contract for refineries has not previously been reported. LONDON: Shell and other leading energy groups have abandoned a six-year-long attempt to define a net zero emissions strategy after being told that such a standard would require them to stop developing new oil and gas fields, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing documents seen by the newspaper. Shell, Norway’s Aker BP and Canada’s Enbridge have all quit the expert advisory group of Science-Based Targets initiative since late last year, the FT reported. The Science-Based Targets initiative, a leading assessor of company climate goals, confirmed it has paused development of the oil and gas standard due to “significant, resource intensive developmen”, it still required. “This is the sole reason behind our decision ... we will return to Oil & Gas Standard development, with the precise timing to be determined as we finalise our forward work programme,” a spokesperson for the group said. In March, the body had proposed new rules to better help companies set high-quality emissions-reduction plans. The companies quit the initiative as draft standards seen by the FT stated that the companies should not develop “new oil and gas fields” once they submitted a climate plan, or from the end of 2027, whichever was sooner. The initiative has “paused” work on the oil and gas standard citing “capacity consi derations”, but denied this was linked to the oil and gas industry departures, saying there was “no basis in reality for these claims”, the FT report said. Shell said in a statement that it supports science-based methodologies and believes standards should reflect “realistic societal and economic changes” while allowing flexibility to

Daya Anagata Nusantara – better known as Danantara – controls over US$900 billion worth of assets and is part of an ambitious plan to grow the US$1.5 trillion economy at a rate of 8% compared to the current 5%. Also mentioned in the presentation was a potential US$2 billion “strategic” investment to develop blue ammonia in US state Louisiana by Indonesian chemical and textile group Indorama. But, the presentation added, the project needs tax credits to become feasible. US President Donald Trump said last week that Indonesia would buy 50 aircraft from Boeing as part of the deal. The presentation put the total value of aviation sector deals with American companies at US$14.4 billion. The potential deals between Indonesia and US could reach US$34 billion, the presentation showed, underscoring the all-out push by Jakarta to become one of the first countries in the world to clinch a deal with Washington. “Indonesia welcomes more US business and investment to create jobs, technology transfer and to support national priority developments,” the presentation said, adding that the com paratively lower tariff for Indonesia could make it a site for regional industry relocations. Jakarta believes the fallout of the lowered

Global oil, gas emissions standard put on pause after Shell, others walk away: FT report

withdrawn after seeing a draft standard that “did not reflect the industry view in any substantive way”, while Aker BP told the newspaper it had left the advisory panel after finding its “ability to influence” the standard “limited”. Enbridge did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Aker BP could not be immediately reached. – Reuters

reach net-zero goals. “In the absence of an industry-wide standard, Shell has used 1.5°C scenarios developed for the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in setting its targets, which we believe demonstrates Paris alignment,” a company spokesperson said. Shell told the FT that its expert had

DRIVE-IN DINER ... A queue forms as Tesla electric vehicles, including the Cybertruck, park beneath a giant movie screen during the opening of the Tesla Diner and Drive-In restaurant and Supercharger on Santa Monica Blvd in the Hollywood neighbourhood Los Angeles, California, on Monday. – AFPPIC