Companies Unable to Meet the 15% Free-Float Requirement? Exchange Prepares Exit Policy

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Financial Services Authority (OJK) is considering an exit policy for listed companies struggling to meet the minimum free-float requirement of 15%. Options include extending the deadline, voluntarily going private and delisting.

Hasan Fawzi, OJK’s Chief Executive for Capital Markets, Derivatives Finance and Carbon Exchanges, said raising the minimum free float was a major priority for regulators. The aim is to widen public investor participation and address concerns about low liquidity, concentrated ownership and transparency.

Hasan said this message had been conveyed and had received full support from listed companies, both through industry associations and direct engagement with the OJK.

However, he acknowledged that meeting the requirement would not be easy. The market’s capacity to absorb shares depends heavily on market conditions, particularly as companies face an aggressive deadline to comply within the next two to three years.

“There is certainly a risk of a simultaneous surge in demand from listed companies that still need to meet the 15% minimum free-float requirement,” Hasan told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday (8 October 2026).

To assist companies, the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), acting on the OJK’s instructions, has set up a task force and a hotline helpdesk for issuers experiencing difficulties.

The OJK will also soon issue new provisions intended to make it easier for listed companies to carry out corporate actions, such as rights issues, to meet the 15% minimum free float.

Hasan added that Exchange Regulation I-A already provides for an exit policy. Compliance will be assessed periodically at each annual milestone, taking into account input from the task force.

He said companies would still need to demonstrate genuine efforts to comply. Overall market conditions would be an objective factor in the assessment, but individual companies could not use them as an excuse.

Going private is not a bad thing

The assessment will help the IDX decide on an exit policy, including delisting companies that had no prospect of meeting the requirement from the outset, even after being granted an extension.

However, Hasan said leaving the exchange was not necessarily a bad outcome. A company might simply no longer wish to increase public ownership and instead choose to go private.

“An exit is certainly possible, and it is not necessarily a bad thing. It may be that a company no longer sees a need to commit to increasing its public ownership, and instead wants to go private of its own accord,” he said.