Jakarta. Indonesia’s biggest cement maker, Semen Indonesia, posted a sharp drop in net profit for the first half of 2015, its corporate secretary told Reuters ahead of its earnings announcement.

The company made a net profit of 2.2 trillion rupiah ($163.3 million) for the six months ended June, Agung Wiharto said in a text message.

Semen Indonesia had posted a net profit of 2.8 trillion rupiah for the corresponding period a year earlier.

Reuters

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Jakarta. Indonesia’s financial regulator is allowing pension funds and insurance firms to buy corporate bonds with ratings below “AA” to boost the local market, an official said on Friday.

The rule easing has already been applied to pension funds, Firdaus Djaelani, non-bank financial institutions supervisor at the Indonesian Financial Services Authority (OJK), told reporters. It will apply to insurers later this year, he said.

The authority on Friday issued 35 policies aimed at stimulating the economy, such as by developing the repurchase agreements market and encouraging small and mid-sized businesses to pursue initial public offerings.

The regulator was considering easing investment in riskier products as the local market was “not liquid enough,” Nurhaida, the capital market supervisor, told Reuters in March.

Reuters

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Jakarta. Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group plans to merge the vehicle it is using to acquire Asia Resource Minerals with its Singapore-listed unit, Golden Energy and Resources, an executive said on Tuesday.

Asia Coal Energy Ventures (ACE), which is managed by Argyle Street Management and funded by Sinar Mas, offered earlier this month 41 pence per share to buy ARMS, which owns nearly 85 percent of Indonesia’s Berau Coal Energy.

“After the acquisition of ARMS is completed, ACE will be merged with [...] Golden Energy and Resources,” Fuganto Widjaja, a Sinar Mas official and grandson of the group’s founder, told reporters.

Reuters

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Jakarta. Indonesian tycoon Tahir said his purchase of a 14.9 percent stake in Singapore-listed Ramba Energy is a “good entry” to oil and gas and may look at more expansion opportunities in the sector.

Ramba, which has oil and gas assets on the Indonesian islands of Java and Sumatra, said on Sunday it will raise S$17.9 million ($13.4 million) in net proceeds from a private placement of 68 million shares at S$0.27 each to Tahir.

The announcement sent Ramba shares surging as much as 17 percent on Monday.

“There are several blocks in Indonesia that are promising. Ramba also has a big room for expansion,” Tahir, the founder of Indonesian conglomerate Mayapada Group, told Reuters by phone. “It’s a good entry to start in the oil and gas sector.”

Mayapada’s hospital operator unit, Sejahteraraya Anugrahjaya, is planning a rights issue to raise Rp 1 trillion in the second quarter, Tahir said.

The group’s Bank Mayapada may also go for a rights issue in September to raise Rp 650 billion, he added.

Reuters

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