Govt eyes more money from share sales
Urip Hudiono, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
The government expects the Asset Management Company (PPA) to raise its contribution to the treasury to Rp 7 trillion (some US$718 million) this year via the sales of its remaining shares in several banks, a finance ministry official said.
"We (the finance ministry) have asked the PPA to add another Rp 2 trillion or 3 trillion to its Rp 4 trillion revenue target for this year," head of the ministry's Economic, Financial and International Collaboration Studies Agency, Anggito Abimanyu, said on Friday.
Anggito explained that the new revenue target could be achieved through the offering of all the remaining government stakes in several banks by the end of this year, including a 5.09 percent share in the country's second largest lender by assets, Bank Central Asia (BCA).
"We will divest all our bank stakes this year, except in Bank Permata, which still needs approval from the House of Representatives," he said.
"We have asked the PPA not to offer the shares cheaply, but at a premium price, like when it sold the Danamon shares."
The government managed to sell its 10.5 percent stake in Bank Danamon, the country's fifth largest lender, earlier this week for Rp 2.68 trillion.
Ministry of Finance Jusuf Anwar said late on Thursday that the government would offer its shares in BCA some time next month, and hoped to be able to rake in some Rp 3 trillion in proceeds.
Apart from the BCA sale, the government has also secured approval from the House to sell its 5.53 percent minority stake in Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII) and a 5.24 percent stake in Bank Niaga.
Other bank share sales awaiting approval from the House, meanwhile, include a 26.17 percent stake in Bank Permata, 28.39 percent stake in Bank Tabungan Pensiunan Nasional, 6.08 percent stake in MayBank Indocorp, 1.5 percent stake in LippoBank, and a 0.0005 percent stake in Bank Panin.
Replacing the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) last year, the PPA acts as the state agency that manages state assets, including shares in several banks acquired when the government bailed them out from bankruptcy during the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Excluding the recent Danamon sale, the PPA has so far generated some Rp 1.4 trillion in proceeds from bank share sales.
Meanwhile, State Minister for State Enterprises Sugiharto expressed optimism that his office would be able to achieve this year's SOE privatization target of Rp 3.5 trillion.
"I don't think it will be too difficult, given how favorable the market has been lately," he said.
Later in the day, Sugiharto also said the government would soon instruct several state enterprises to open a bidding process to seek financial advisors to help the government decide on merging or selling the companies.
"We will soon seek advisors to help us carry out the government's blueprint for managing state enterprises. It will be opened to both local and foreign advisors, depending on their speciality," said Sugiharto at the Presidential Palace.
The government has planned to merge a number of state enterprises and set up several holding companies to oversee smaller state firms to help restructure and revitalize state enterprises, the majority of which are in bad shape financially.
From a total of 158 state firms as of last year, 54 of them will be merged into 21 while 38 will be included in 10 holding companies and 66 would remain the same. -- JP