The Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) is close to completing its acquisition of a 95% stake in Surabaya-based Bank Arta Niaga Kencana, the founder of the Indonesian bank Harry Wijaya said Wednesday (25/7/07), according to Dow Jones Newswires. Wijaya declined to mention the value of the transaction, but said that he will get a 20% stake in insurance company PT Commonwealth Life as "compensation".

State-owned pawn shop operator PT Perum Pegadaian said it plans to issue 10-year bonds worth Rp600 billion ($66.6 million) to strengthen its working capital. The fixed-and/or floating-rate bonds will be divided into series-A bonds worth Rp400 billion and series-B bonds worth Rp200 billion, the company's president director Deddy Kusdedy was quoted as saying by Antara on Wednesday (25/7/07).

State asset management firm PT PPA sold the luxury Bali Nirwana hotel in Bali for Rp510.8 billion ($55.97 million) to Singapore's E-Crisps Trading Ltd, PPA said on Thursday (26/7/07), according to Reuters. The state firm had short-listed three other bidders – South Korea's Hanwha Securities and Samtan Co Ltd and Singapore-based Pink Sapphire Investment Ltd.

PT Asian Agri plans to invest Rp1.3 trillion ($142.9 million) to build crude palm oil factories to increase its production by up to 10%, The Investor Daily reported on Thursday (26/7/07). The daily quoted Semion Tarigan, director of one of its units, PT Inti Indosawit, as saying the firm plans to expand its annual crude palm oil production capacity by 100,000 tons.

Recent improvements in Indonesia's macroeconomic indicators are improving confidence in the economy as a whole, with the central bank's latest survey showing estimates of higher growth built on more investment and a continued increase in bank lending for the year.

To encourage the use of environmentally friendly fuel, the government is considering a regulation that will make the use of biofuel mandatory, particularly in Java and Sumatra, an official said Saturday. Evita H. Legowo, the first secretary of the National Biofuel Development Committee, told The Jakarta Post the committee was conducting a study to determine how the regulation could be applied.

As one of the top industries that have the potential to push Indonesia's economic growth above 7 percent, the electronics industry should be able to double exports to US$15 billion by 2010, the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) has said. Based on its 2030 Vision and 2010 Industry Roadmap -- the result of nine months of research soon to be presented to President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono -- Kadin said the industry could be one of the backbones of the national economy by 2010.