[Antara] 23 January 2008

News:

• Bank Indonesia, the central bank, said Wednesday the latest interest rate cut in the US has eased concerns about the outlook for the world's largest economy. Bank Indonesia said the move is also having a positive impact on the local stock market and the currency, the rupiah. The Fed cut its federal funds rate by 75 basis points to 3.5 percent overnight and signalled that further rate cuts were likely. At midday, the composite index was up 108.84 points or 4.7 percent at 2,403.37, coming off an intraday high of 2,469.33. The rupiah was trading at 9,383/9,388 to the dollar, strengthening from 9,485/9,490 late yesterday. "Of course it (rate cut) is positive in a sense that when we talked about economic outlook yesterday, it was so worrying," said Budi Mulya, the central bank's deputy governor. The stock market and the rupiah have also reacted positively, he told Thomson Financial. Mulya hopes the recovery is sustainable going forward. In the recent stock market selldown, Bank Indonesia had to defend the rupiah in foreign exchange trading against selling by foreign fund managers, he said. "Today, we have seen some improvement," he said.

• Indonesian share prices bounced back 7.5 percent in early trade Wednesday as hopes for a market recovery were revived by a surprise rate cut in the United States overnight, dealers said. The Fed cut its federal funds rate by 75 basis points late Tuesday and signalled that further rate cuts were likely. The Jakarta composite index immediately rose by 150 points shortly after the opening of trading and by 9:45 am, (0245 GMT) it was 171.29 points stronger at 2,465.82. "I think it (the cut) will reduce selling pressure on Wall Street for a while," said Prayoga Triyono, fund manager at Henan Putirai Asset Management. "It is too early to question whether or not the rally will be sustainable as it will very much depend on the consistency of positive news from the US," he told AFP. The market could come under pressure again if at some point people thought that the US economy required more than rate cuts to prevent it from slipping into a recession, he said. The rupiah was at 9,380 /9385 to the dollars around 10:00 am (0300 GMT) compared to the 9,485/9,490 to the dollar at closing Tuesday.
  
  

[Antara] Inflation rate in 2008 expected to drop: BI

News:

Bank Indonesia (BI) Senior Deputy Governor Miranda S Goeltom said the country`s inflation rate in 2008 would show a downward trend and was expected to drop to below this year`s figure. "Inflation next year will be lower than this year when the figure is estimated to range between 6.33 percent and 6.7 percent," Miranda said here on Thursday. She said BI`s studies on next year`s inflation rate had used pessimistic assumptions such as high oil and commodity prices. The downward trend in next year`s inflation rate was one of the reasons why BI had lowered its benchmark rate from 8.25 percent to 8 percent, according to Miranda. She said the United States subprime mortgage crisis had not affected Indonesia too much as the performance of the banking sector in the country had remained good. "We don`t see that it affected Indonesia. Data show that banking`s performance remained good and is now even improving," she said. She said banks` non-performing loans had dropped while their capital adequacy ratio (CAR) had increased. "With such resilience, it is just correct for BI to cut its interest rate in an effort to maintain the momentum for growth while continuing to play its stabilization role," she said. Miranda said though there would be sluggishness in the global economy, Indonesia`s economy would record high growth in 2008. "Amid the slow-down of the global economy, we are confident that Indonesia`s economy will experience handsome growth at 6.3 to 6.7 percent with a mid point of 6.5 percent," she added.

[Bisnis] 17 Januari 2008

News:

• Pemerintah mengkaji penawaran umum kedua (secondary offering) maksimal 40% saham baru PT Kimia Farma Tbk (KF), sekaligus mendivestasi maksimal 80,66% saham di PT Indofarma Tbk tahun ini. kajian itu sudah diusulkan oleh Meneg BUMN Sofyan A. Djalil kepada Menko Perekonomian Boediono selaku Ketua Komite Privatisasi belum lama ini. Privatisasi lanjutan kedua BUMN farmasi itu merupakan usulan tambahan untuk program privatisasi tahun ini. Menurut rencana,rapat Komite Privatisasi dijadwalkan pada 21 Januari.

• Indeks Harga Saham Gabungan (IHSG) Bursa Efek Indonesia tertekan hingga di bawah level 2.600, menyusul kekhawatiran ancaman resesi ekonomi di Amerika Serikat yang semakin nyata. Sementara itu, ancaman margin call mengintai bursa yang bisa menyeret indeks ke posisi yang lebih dalam.
  
  
• PT Bursa Efek Indonesia (BEI) berharap PT Bakrie & Brothers Tbk (BNBR) mengumumkan rencana pengurangan jumlah saham beredar (reverse stock) dan rights issue secara detail dan formal pekan ini. menurut Direktur Pencatatan BEI Eddy Sugito, penghentian sementara perdagangan saham BNBR terjadi kemarin pagi karena belum ada pengumuman secara lengkap dan formal dari emiten itu, sehingga dikhawatirkan menimbulkan berbagai penafsiran dari informasi yang tidak lengkap.
  


• PT Semen Gresik Tbk mengkaji rencana penerbitan obligasi rupiah senilai Rp 1,5 triliun - Rp 2 triliun sebagai salah satu sumber pembiayaan eksternal untuk menopang rencana ekspansi. penerbitan obligasi ini akan dilakukan setelah tuntasnya penerbitan obligasi US$300 juta - US$500 juta. dengan menerbitkan obligasi, Semen Gresik bisa mengurangi risiko rugi akibat fluktuasi nilai tukar, apalagi sebagian besar pendapatan perseroan dalam rupiah.
  

[Bisnis] 15 Januari 2008

News:

• Pemerintah segera menurunkan bea masuk (BM) impor kedelai menjadi 0% dari semula 5%-10%. Ini merupakan langkah jangka pendek untuk mengurangi beban perusahaan kecil sehubungan dengan kenaikan harga komoditas itu di pasar dunia.


• PT Bakrie & Brothers Tbk menyampaikan rencana pencarian dana sebesar Rp 47 triliun kepada PT Bursa Efek Indonesia dan Badan Pengawas Pasar Modal dan Keuangan (Bapepam-LK). Dana sebesar itu akan dipakai untuk mengakuisisi tiga perusahaan terafiliasi, yaitu PT Bumi Resources Tbk, PT Energi Mega Tbk, dan PT Bakrieland Tbk.


• PT Bank NISP Tbk telah menunjuk PT Standard Chartered Securities, PT CIMB-GK Securities Indonesia, dan PT NISP Sekuritas sebagai penjamin pelaksana emisi (underwriter) obligasi subordinasi senilai Rp 500 miliar - Rp 700 miliar. Dana dari penjualan surat utang itu, yang akan dijadwalkan minggu depan, akan digunakan Bank NISP untuk melunasi lebih awal obligasi yang pernah diterbitkan sebelumnya.

[Bisnis] 9 Januari 2008

News:

• PT Indofood Sukses Makmur tbk berencana menerbitkan obligasi V senilai Rp 1,5 triliun hingga Rp 2 triliun pada Maret atau April tahun ini untuk membiayai kembali utang anak perusahaan yang sebelumnya digunakan untuk akuisisi. Penerbitan obligasi ini rencananya akan diikuti oleh penerbitan surat utang oleh PT Salim Ivonas Pratama.
  
• Lion Air segera memulai debut internasional melalui akuisisi 49% saham salah satu perusahaan penerbangan di Australia dan menempatkan sedikitnya enam pesawat Boeing 737-900ER mulai tahun ini.
  
• PT PLN Persero akhirnya memutuskan memberhentikan secara permanen Ali Herman Ibrahim sebagai direktur pembangkitan dan energi primer, dan mengangkat GM PLN Disjaya Fahmi A. Mochtar sebagai pelaksana tugas. Pemegang saham masih membuka kemungkinan dilakukan pemberian sanksi serupa kepada general manager dan staf, direksi, dan komisaris PLN yang turut menyebabkan seretnya pasokan batu bara untuk PLTU Tanjung Jadi B 2 X 660 MW.
  

[ANTARA] 3 January 2008

News:

The country`s inflation rate for 2007 turned out to be 6.59 percent or higher than the 6 percent projected in the State Budget, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) said. Meanwhile, the inflation rate for December 2007 stood at 1.10 percent, PBS deputy head for distribution and services statistics Ali Rosidi said here Wednesday. The inflation rate for 2007 accorded with the figure projected by the Bank of Indonesia (BI), namely six plus or minus one percent. He said the relatively high inflation rate for December 2007 was caused by increases in the prices of food stuffs (2.47 percent), finished foods, beverages, cigarettes, and tobacco (0.91 percent), and clothing (0,99 percent). "In the two last weeks of December there were sudden price surges, especially in the prices of rice and various kinds of seasoning," he said. The price increases were caused by reduced supply and increased demand during the prolonged Idul Adha, Christmas and New Year holiday season. "The trigger of the price increases was not the floods that occurred in a number of cities because they happened in all cities across the country," he said. Meanwhile, the core inflation for 2007 was recorded at 6.29 percent and that for December 2007 at 0,68 percent.