TWO INDONESIAN STATE-OWNED SECURITIES COMPANIES TO MERGE

Two Indonesian state-owned securities companies, namely PT Danareksa Sekuritas and PT Bahana Sekuritas, will merge to become one company, State Enterprises Minister Mustafa Abubakar said.

"A study on the merger plan is now being made," he said. He said the two companies would be merged because they both operated in the same industries.

He said the merger of the two companies has been part of his office`s plan to merge companies operating in similar lines.

"By uniting them into one company it is hoped there will be no competition among state-owned securities companies in the same market so that they could increase the scale of their businesses and corporate targets," he said.

He said however that the merger plan would be realized only after the government fully controlled or held 100 percent shares of PT Bahana Pembinaan Usaha Indonesia (BPUI), the principal of Bahana Sekuritas.

"Let us just see after the BPUI is granted to the government," he said. The finance ministry and Bank Indonesia (BI), the central bank, have agreed to grant 82.2 percent of BI shares in BPUI to the government. This will make the company under the supervision of the state enteprise minister`s office and 100 percent shares of the company is held by the government. Besides turning BPUI into a state-owned company the government will also study merging insurance companies PT Askrindo and Jamkrindo.