"True, no single state firm will go public this year. State pawnshop operator PT Pegadaian and state postal firm PT Pos Indonesia have been requested not to conduct IPO," Dahlan said.Jakarta (ANTARA News) - State Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan gave the assurance on Wednesday that no state-owned company will make an initial public offering (IPO) of its shares this year.
"True, no single state firm will go public this year. State pawnshop operator PT Pegadaian and state postal firm PT Pos Indonesia have been requested not to conduct IPO," he said after a coordination meeting on the 2013 privatization program at the Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs here.
Dahlan said the meeting led by Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Hatta Rajasa and attended by Finance Minister Agus Martowardojo, and Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik discussed the possibility of privatizing three state firms.
The meeting decided not to let Pegadaian float its shares to the public because it must focus on serving middle and low income people, he said.
PT Pos Indonesia could not make an IPO of its shares this year as it still had to revalue its assets, he said.
"The value of PT Pos Indonesia`s assets to be revalued is huge and consequently, it has to pay a large amount of taxes. Pos Indonesia does not have enough money to pay the taxes," he said.
In essence, the two companies were asked to develop their business rather than floating their shares to the public, he said.
He said the government feared PT Pos Indonesia would not focus on its business if it sold its shares to the public.
The meeting also discussed state mining firm PT Aneka Tambang`s plan to make a right issue of 5 percent of its shares in the capital market, he said.
"The meeting decided to put the right issue of Antam shares on hold because the price of its shares plummeted, along with a slump in the prices of mining shares in the international market," he said. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
