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Kolette Lim

Indonesia’s Danantara must outlive political administrations to prove its worth to investors and most importantly to the people, according to the sovereign wealth fund’s chief investment officer.
Pandu Sjahrir said the fund was focused on the demutualisation of Jakarta’s stock market and to support the establishment of the first financial centre in Bali to boost investor confidence.
“Investment is almost everything for us. Confidence is the name of the game, and we have to create long-term confidence,” Pandu said at the Nusa Dua Forum in Bali on Friday, organised by the South China Morning Post with Danantara Indonesia as partner.
“So, for me personally, Danantara has to outlast presidencies, and for this to happen, we have to be very, very successful,” he said.
Success was the best insurance in guaranteeing continuity from one political administration to another and the core leadership of Danantara had to be disciplined in its focus to deliver high and sustainable returns on its mandate.

“For us, our focus is strictly on profit,” Pandu said at a panel discussion with Tengku Zafrul Aziz, chairman of the Malaysian Investment Development Authority.
Pandu said Danantara drew inspiration from other regional sovereign wealth funds, such as Malaysia’s Khazanah, by establishing rigorous underwriting standards.
“There’s so much downside protection and layering to ensure that at least we get a good return of capital.”
“We call it work-work balance in Danantara, seven days a week, honestly, because we have to make sure that the institution is stronger than the individual,” Pandu said later at a closing dialogue.
Since its inception last year, Indonesia’s second sovereign wealth fund has now pivoted from implementation to ensuring consistency, efficiency and stability, according to Pandu.
Hailing the importance of “quick wins”, he said the investment vehicle aimed to complete items on its agenda before the year ended. “Maybe six months. I don’t have one year … It’s like a dog year, one year is equal to six or seven years,” he said when asked about Danantara’s priorities for 2027.
Danantara has since January backed the government’s efforts to demutualise the stock market, which would turn the member-owned bourse into a share company owned by external investors. The fund described it as an important effort to strengthen governance, transparency and Indonesia’s equities in the long term.

“In terms of stability, because family capital lasts longer than any presidency, consistency is also very important … So you need to have quick wins,” Pandu said.
The fund will also support the launch of an international financial centre in an economic zone in Bali, expected to be formalised in parliament by this month.
To a room of sovereign fund operators, family office leaders and institutional investors, Pandu said: “You can use Bali as a gateway to invest in Indonesia.”
Danantara, which oversees more than 1,000 companies and a trillion US dollars in assets, is poised to be one of the main vehicles driving President Prabowo Subianto’s ambition to raise Indonesia’s economic growth from 5 per cent to 8 per cent by 2029.
Its launch sparked fears over transparency and accumulated risks by one overarching fund and concerns that politics would dilute its mandate to be profitable and maximise the country’s wealth and resources.
In an interview with This Week in Asia after the forum, Pandu said an audit report would be released in September, calling the process of putting it together arduous and a “massive exercise”.
While he acknowledged concerns around the fund, Pandu said Danantara’s successful bond sale and its admission into the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF) have boosted confidence.
The fund’s investment unit raised US$1.5 billion in its debut US dollar bond sale, experiencing strong global demand with US$4.6 billion in orders. Danantara was granted admission to the IFSWF as an associate member this month. Pandu said Danantara hoped to achieve full membership status within a year.

“The fact that we’re able to issue our bond sale very well, three times oversubscribed, and also in terms of IFSWF, because IFSWF’s main issue is all about governance and transparency … It’s kind of the standard agreed on by everyone,” he said.
“We will use the standard, but also will not release some information, because I think we also have to balance between transparency, openness, as well as national security.”
Against the backdrop of Danantara’s moves to deploy capital, co-invest and rationalise the country’s 1,000 state-owned enterprises down to 250, other parts of the Indonesian economy have not fared as well.
Its financial markets have been undergoing a severe rout as investors pull billions out of Jakarta’s assets, driven by concern over the conflict in the Middle East and the Prabowo administration’s policies.
Global index provider MSCI, which in January warned it would reclassify Indonesia from an emerging to a frontier market due to a lack of transparency over shareholder structures by May, has put off the decision until November.

Credit ratings agency S&P reaffirmed Jakarta’s sovereign credit rating last Monday, stating that it expected recent financial strains to be temporary and mitigated by higher commodity prices and spending cuts.
“I think all the intentions are excellent, it’s just sometimes, the execution and how it gets translated are different,” Pandu said of the country’s financial climate, adding that time was required for some policies to bear fruit.
“I think there’s been noise. One thing we need to do better is to be able to sell ourselves better, not just domestically but also outside,” he said, pointing to Friday’s forum as a launch pad.
“This year is not tough, it is just a bit illusory,” Pandu said, recalling that Indonesia had weathered economic crises before.
He added that the country’s tycoons rode out the storm, refused to leave and even “doubled down”.
“The leading businesspeople here … stayed because they believe in the country and they believe that, actually, we just have to work closer to the government to build Indonesia,” Pandu said.


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Indonesia’s Danantara must ‘outlast’ presidencies to prove worth: investment chief

Pandu Sjahrir, chief investment oﬃcer, Danantara Indonesia, speaks at a closing fireside chat at the Nusa Dua Forum in Bali on Friday. Photo: Nora Tam

(Left to right): Zuraidah Ibrahim, executive editor, South China Morning Post; Pandu Sjahrir, chief investment oﬃcer, Danantara Indonesia; and Tengku Zafrul Aziz, chairman, Malaysia Investment Development Authority speak during a panel discussion at the Nusa Dua Forum in Bali on Friday. Photo: Nora Tam

(From left) Pandu Sjahrir, chief investment oﬃcer, Danantara Indonesia; Tammy Tam, publisher, South China Morning Post; Zuraidah Ibrahim, executive editor, South China Morning Post; and Tengku Zafrul Aziz, chairman, Malaysia Investment Development Authority, interact during dinner at the Nusa Dua Forum in Bali on Friday. Photo: Nora Tam 

Pandu Sjahrir (centre), chief investment oﬃcer, Danantara Indonesia and Tengku Zafrul Aziz (right), chairman, Malaysia Investment Development Authority, interact during dinner at the Nusa Dua Forum in Bali on Friday. Photo: Nora Tam

The headquarters of Danantara Indonesia in Jakarta. Photo: AFP

Pandu Sjahrir (right), chief investment oﬃcer, Danantara Indonesia and James Riady (left), founder and chairman of Pendidikan Pelita Harapan Foundation and coordinating vice chairman for foreign affairs, KADIN Indonesia, speaking at the Nusa Dua Forum in Bali on Friday. Photo: Nora Tam

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Addressing the Nusa Dua Forum, Pandu Sjahrir said the fund should build investor confidence through ‘quick wins’ and stock market reforms


Addressing the Nusa Dua Forum, Pandu Sjahrir said the fund should build investor confidence through ‘quick wins’ and stock market reforms.


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Indonesia’s Danantara must ‘outlast’ presidencies to prove worth: investment chief

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Addressing the Nusa Dua Forum, Pandu Sjahrir said the fund should build investor confidence through ‘quick wins’ and stock market reforms

Addressing the Nusa Dua Forum, Pandu Sjahrir said the fund should build investor confidence through ‘quick wins’ and stock market reforms