New foreign venture capital company starts operation

New foreign venture capital company starts operation

JAKARTA (JP): PT Malindo Ventura Nusantara, a new venture
capital company partly controlled by Renong Nusantara Sdn. Bhd.
of Malaysia, began providing financial support for medium-size
companies yesterday.

Malindo's start up was officially launched during a ceremony
at the Jakarta Hilton Convention Center.

"We are the 15th capital company to operate in Indonesia to
support medium-size companies in terms of finance," the company's
executive director, Sudaryanto Sudargo, said.

A venture capital company is an institution which provides
financial assistance through an equity participation scheme.
Based on an Indonesian government ruling, the participation is
limited to a 10-year period of cooperation, during which the
venture capital firm should be in a position to divest its shares
to the clients.

"Malindo Ventura plans to increase equity participation by up
to 49 percent of the total capital owned by clients," Sudaryanto
said.

The company has also set a ceiling of funds needed by its
clients at between Rp 10 million and Rp 20 million, he added.

"The main targets of our investments are medium-scale clients
which are export oriented," he said.

"And those which are eligible for our funding scheme should be
companies which are not listed on the capital market," he said.

According to Sudaryanto, the establishment of Malindo Ventura
is based on a bilateral commitment between Minister of Finance
Mar'ie Muhammad and Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Anwar
Ibrahim during their July 2 meeting in Malaysia.

As a follow up of their commitment, both governments agreed to
establish Malindo Ventura, which was 50 percent owned by Renong
Nusantara, 43 percent by the state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia
(BRI) and the remaining seven percent by Pension Fund foundation,
PT Sarinah Pasar Raya, PT Nugraha Santana and investing
individuals. (fhp)