Jakarta – Environmental advocacy group Market Forces has filed a formal complaint with the Singapore Exchange (SGX) against Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC), alleging potential misleading conduct related to financing that supports Indonesian industrial coal power plants.
In a media release issued Tuesday, February 24, Market Forces said OCBC’s public disclosures may be “materially misleading” to investors and the market regarding its exposure to coal-powered operations linked to Indonesia’s Harita Nickel Group.
The complaint centres on financing provided to entities within the Harita group, whose nickel smelting operations on Obi Island rely heavily on captive coal-fired power plants. Market Forces argues that this exposure risks breaching SGX rules on disclosure and sustainability reporting.
“OCBC’s funding of Harita’s entities, whose operations rely on industrial coal plants powering a nickel smelter on Obi Island, Indonesia, exposes a loophole enabling financing of fossil fuels harmful to the climate and a safe future,” said Binbin Mariana, Asia Energy Finance Campaigner at Market Forces.
She called on SGX to consider launching an investigation into whether OCBC may be misleading investors and failing to comply with SGX Rulebooks.
Coal exposure and disclosure concerns
Under its Responsible Financing Framework, OCBC has committed to excluding project financing for new coal power plants. For corporate financing, the framework sets thresholds requiring that coal power capacity or revenue must not exceed 25% for new clients and 50% for existing clients.
Market Forces alleges that OCBC’s disclosures do not provide complete information to investors about the full extent of its exposure to companies reliant on industrial coal power plants, nor the climate-related transition risks associated with that exposure.
According to Harita’s own disclosures, the group currently operates 910 megawatts (MW) of coal power generation capacity to support its nickel processing activities on Obi Island. It plans to double that capacity to 1,670 MW. By comparison, Harita operates only 40 MW of solar power capacity.
The complaint also highlights a sharp rise in Harita’s emissions, which nearly tripled from 3.74 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (MtCO₂e) in 2022 to 10.87 MtCO₂e in 2024. Market Forces said the latter figure is equivalent to the annual emissions of around 2.5 million fossil fuel-powered cars.
“Investors need the full picture as they rely on climate and coal phase-out commitments disclosed by banks to assess growing climate-related risk,” said Binbin. “There must be greater transparency from all banks on how financing any companies whose operations rely on coal power plants is aligned with their own policies, global climate goals and the critical transition to clean, reliable and affordable energy.”
SGX rules on disclosure and sustainability
As a company listed on SGX, OCBC is subject to the SGX Mainboard Rules, with compliance overseen by SGX RegCo. These include Rule 703(1), which requires issuers to disclose material information necessary to avoid the creation of a “false market” in their securities.
The exchange’s Rules 711A and 711B also require listed companies to publish sustainability reports, including climate-related disclosures aligned with the IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards, which build on recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Practice Note 7.6 to Rule 711B clarifies that sustainability disclosures fall within the scope of continuous disclosure obligations under Rule 703(1).
Market Forces said it expects SGX to assess whether OCBC’s disclosures adequately reflect its exposure to coal-reliant operations and associated transition risks. OCBC had not publicly responded to the complaint at the time of writing. (nsh)
Banner photo: Nickel mining in South Sulawesi (Putu Artana/shutterstock.com)
