Foreign firms might list shares on JSX

Foreign firms might list shares on JSX

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will probably allow foreign companies
to list their shares on the Jakarta Stock Exchange (JSX) this
year after the government approves a revised draft ruling on
stock listing and trading, a JSX executive said.

"The listing of foreign companies' shares is included in our
draft ruling, which is now under examination by the Capital
Market Supervisory Board (Bapepam)," JSX president Hasan Zein
Machmud said, Republika daily reported over the weekend.

He said he was optimistic that the planned access of foreign
companies to the country's stock market will be able to attract
much more investments and help JSX become one of the most
competitive stock markets in Asia.

He said there are, so far, two foreign companies showing
interest to list their common stocks on the JSX. He declined to
identify the companies.

Hasan said the JSX has also received applications from an
international financial institution and a fund manager to float
their bonds on the JSX.

He expected that the planned ruling will also regulate the
listing of bonds and commercial papers, including warrants.

Bapepam is now preparing a series of new laws on the stock
market, which are expected to be delivered to the House of
Representatives for deliberations this year.

Bapepam's chairman, Bacelius Ruru, refused to give comments on
the possibility of the listing of foreign companies in the
country, saying that the draft ruling has not been finalized.

"We are now collecting input from parties involved in stock
market activities to complete the draft," he said.

"Anyway, I have no idea on the planned access of foreign
companies to the country's market. I am not able to comment on
what I have not read," he said.

Consolidation

Discussing Indonesia's new current ruling on the stock market,
the chairman of the Jakarta-based Center for Legal Studies,
Marzuki Uzman, said that Indonesia should be flexible in its
ruling on the stock market on the grounds that Indonesia is
becoming more important in the region.

Speaking in a ceremony Friday evening to launch a book on the
collection of stock market rulings, Marzuki cautioned that there
is now a tendency of stock market consolidation in the world.

"Some experts have informed us that markets in Europe, for
example, will likely consolidate themselves into one or two
central stock markets," he said, predicting that the London Stock
Exchange will probably become the central market in Europe.

Like Europe, the United States will also consolidate its stock
markets to bring only one flag of Wall Street's New York Stock
Exchange, which will accommodate markets in Mexico, Canada and
Latin America, he said.

In Asia, he said, Japan may become the central market,
covering markets in South Korea, China, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

"In countries from the Association of South East Asian
Nations, I am optimistic that Indonesia can be a central market,
as long as Indonesia is able to anticipate the consolidation move
through the introduction of new regulations," Marzuki said.

Jeremy Wiesen, a visiting accounting professor from New York
University, said in his keynote speech at the book launching
ceremony, that Indonesia has an enormous potency to become a
major stock market in Asia because Indonesia has a lot of human
resources.

Other indications of the good prospect of the Indonesian
market include the strong growth in the number of listed
companies and the improvement of rulings, he said. (fhp)