The government focuses on inviting investors to develop infrastructure projects, in the first two years of the establishment of the Investment Management Institution (LPI) or SWF Indonesia. This is stated in the LPI roadmap for the next three to five years. "We focus on infrastructure assets, such as toll roads, airports and ports," said Deputy Minister of BUMN Kartika Wirjoatmodjo at the Mandiri Investment Forum 2021, Wednesday (3/2).
Tiko, Kartika's nickname, said the government wanted to use this opportunity to improve asset quality and expand capacity with global partners to create added value after the Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has weakened many business sectors, including transportation, both airports and ports. According to him, airports and ports will be very attractive sectors in the medium term, due to high domestic flight and shipping traffic. He believes traffic recovery at domestic airports will be faster than those at international hub airports.
Not only in the infrastructure sector, LPI can also be a means for investors to invest in shares in BUMN. One of them, PT Bank Syariah Indonesia Tbk (BRIS), a combination of three state-owned sharia banks which was inaugurated in early February 2021. Tiko said BSI needed a significant capital increase in the medium term to support its operations. The government encourages this bank to increase its capital through a preemptive rights scheme, aka a rights issue. "We will be very open to working with investors who want to take block seeds from BSI in the future," he said. Apart from banks, the Ministry of BUMN also plans to invite global investors to invest in the shares of PT Telkom Indonesia Tbk (TLKM). Investments are made through a subsidiary of Telkom, which is currently preparing for an initial public offering (IPO). Currently Telkom is carrying out a company restructuring. The Ministry of BUMN encourages Telkom to separate a subsidiary, aka spin off. "This could be a good opportunity for the medium term relationship with LPI and Telkom. Also develop digital infrastructure and also the consumer business," said Tiko.
One of Telkom's subsidiaries that is currently being prepared to take the floor on the Indonesia Stock Exchange is PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi alias Mitratel. This company is engaged in the telecommunications tower business sector, which recently signed an agreement to buy 6,050 towers belonging to Telkomsel for Rp 10.3 trillion. Tiko explained that the government also has three venture capital companies (venture capital) that investors can use to invest in technology startup companies through LPI. "Can invest in both assets driven by state-owned enterprises such as LinkAja," he said. In the long-term plan for the establishment of SWF, the government also wants to invite more investment into a wider sector. Tiko said that the health and consumer sectors could be the choice of investors in the future.
