Thu, 22 Apr 2010

From: The Jakarta Globe

By Faisal Maliki Baskoro
In a bid to promote Indonesia as an investment destination, 10 state-owned companies will go on a non-deal road show next week in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The road show will include the eight biggest publicly listed state-owned companies as well as two companies that have initial public offerings in the pipeline - national flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia and steel maker PT Krakatau Steel.

The road show is being organized by state-owned PT Danareksa Sekuritas, PT Mandiri Sekuritas and PT Bahana Securities. “Now is the time to buy Indonesia,” Danareksa Sekuritas president director Edgar Ekaputra said on Wednesday.

The road show will be a good opportunity to gauge investor interest in the planned Garuda and Krakatau Steel IPOs, he said.

Krakatau Steel is planning to sell about 30 percent of its equity in November for about Rp 3.5 trillion ($388.5 million).

Meanwhile, Garuda plans to sell as much as 40 percent of its equity for up to $400 million in the third quarter.

The other eight state-owned companies are PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, PT Bank Mandiri, PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia, gas distributor PT Perusahaan Gas Negara, miners PT Aneka Tambang and PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, cement maker PT Semen Gresik, and toll road operator PT Jasa Marga.

Kartika Wirjoatmodjo, managing director at PT Mandiri Sekuritas, said the road show would be a good pre-marketing opportunity for Garuda and Krakatau Steel.

“In general, listed state-owned companies have performed well in the stock market. We want future investors to understand and feel comfortable with Garuda and Krakatau Steel as well,” he said, adding that there would be special sessions for Garuda and Krakatau Steel to promote themselves to investors and analysts.

Kartika said the road show had already attracted the attention of more than 40 potential investors, including large British insurer Prudential.

“We want the investors to understand that the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry is very pro-market and transparent,” he said.

The road show will also features individual presentations from each listed SOE on their recent performance.

“This is a very rare opportunity. We want to present ourselves as Indonesia Inc,” Kartika said.

There are currently 16 SOEs listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX).

Chandra Pasaribu, an analyst at Danareksa Sekuritas, said listed SOEs had performed well compared to the 50 biggest non-SOE listed companies.

“In general, the listed SOEs have performed very well despite their limitations.” SOEs were bound by more laws and regulations than private sector companies which limited their flexibility, Chandra said.