Indonesian sovereign wealth fund Danantara hopes to allocate some assets to the local stock market by the end of the year.
Pandu Sjahrir, chief investment officer of Danantara, said the fund invests 80% of its assets in Indonesia, primarily in bonds and infrastructure.
“Although there are only ten weeks left for this year, we want to be active, and hope to invest in the stock market as soon as possible,” he said at a capital market conference in Jakarta on October 20.
But he voiced concern about low liquidity in the Indonesian stock market.
“We want to be in public market equity. However, equity does need more liquidity… We are only at US$1 billion per day, it needs to be increased, it has to reach $5 billion or $8 billion per day,” he said.
He also said the wealth fund intends to slash the number of state-owned enterprises that it controls from over 1,000 to less than 200 through mergers and divestments.
“We want to manage them like a business and make them profitable. If the companies are already strong in the domestic market, then we want to make them strong globally,” he said.
