Danantara: Pelni-Pelindo Merger Unlikely Due to Differences in Business Models

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Danantara Chief Operating Officer (COO) and Head of the SOE Regulatory Agency (BP BUMN) Dony Oskaria believes a merger between PT Pelabuhan Indonesia (Pelindo) and PT Pelayaran Nasional Indonesia (Pelni) is unlikely because their businesses have different characteristics.

“We also have to examine each company’s business model. We cannot simply bring them together because they operate at sea; each already follows its industry’s best practices,” Dony said in Jakarta on Thursday.

He added that the two companies in the maritime and waters sector have substantially different industry focuses. Pelindo operates in the port industry, while Pelni is in the shipping industry.

“Pelindo is in the port industry. The other one, Pelni, is in shipping. So they cannot be merged; they do not match. Although both operate at sea, that does not mean they should be merged,” he said.

“There will certainly be no merger between Pelni and Pelindo, because they are two different businesses. I have never said that Pelni and Pelindo would be merged. They are two different things: one is ports, the other is transport,” Dony stressed.

Asked about the possibility of a merger between Pelni and PT ASDP Indonesia Ferry (Persero), he said it would need to be assessed against various considerations.

“That might be possible, but we need to look at their respective uniqueness and other factors. Everything must be carefully considered; we have first merged companies in the same industry,” Dony said.

“For example, insurance companies are clearly in the same field, so we merged them. We also merged asset management companies and industrial estate companies. Their business types were already the same, so the mergers made them more efficient,” he added.