"Sales of BUMN shares to foreign investors have been stopped. It is high time no more BUMN shares or assets are sold to foreign investors," State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan said.
He said privatization would only be done through initial public offerings (IPO).
"If foreign investors buy through the share market it is not a problem. But strategic sales to foreign parties will not happen again," he said.
Citing an instance of bad management of BUMN, he referred to the case of Indosat share sales to Singapore that has caused the government shares in the telecommunications company to drop to 15 per cent.
"The reason for selling Indosat shares to Singapore then was to cover the shortage in the national budget. That was the only way out of the crisis," he said.
He said efforts taken to put BUMNs in order so far has been aimed at improving the conditions of the companies so that they could buy foreign companies.
"We must push BUMNs that have large assets and capacity to expand abroad and if necessary to take over palm oil companies that invest in Indonesia," he said.
He said his office was preparing an IPO for cement company PT Semen Baturaja, plantation company PTPN VII and PT Pertamina subsidiaries PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy and PT Pertamina Drilling Services.
Dahlan admitted that common people still view IPO as something similar to selling shares to foreign parties.
He said he would strive to let domestic investors be the biggest buyers of BUMN shares in IPOs.
"What is certain is the government must hold no less than 51 per cent shares in BUMN," he said.
(T.R017/Uu.H-YH/INE/A014)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
