Indonesia Strikes Oil With Arab Investors

The Jakarta Globe, Janeman Latul & Muhammad Al Azhari, January 30, 2009

Abu Dhabi’s crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahayan, is one of two investors from the United Arab Emirates who are set to invest at least $3.7 billion in infrastructure projects and oil refineries in Indonesia by March, said the co-head of the World Islamic Economic Forum on Wednesday. 

“Two foreign investors from the Middle East have already committed around $3.7 billion, out of our forecast of $5 billion in total,” said Tanri Abeng, co-chairman of the Wief and chief commissioner of PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia Tbk, or Telkom. “An investor from Abu Dhabi is in the final stages of investing in infrastructure and energy projects in East Kalimantan and South Sumatra, by teaming up with the two provincial governments.” 

Tanri revealed few specific details about the projects. 

“The Crown Prince himself will be investing, and the total investment will be about $2 billion to $3 billion,” he said. 

Early this month, Tanri said he expected Indonesian companies to sign more than $5 billion worth of deals during the Wief, which will be held from March 2 to 3 in Jakarta. “The figure may end up lower than our projections, but hopefully we will be able to achieve our targets at the forum,” he said. 

The crown prince is the head of Mubadala Development Co., which functions as the main investment vehicle for the Abu Dhabi government. 

Dubai, the second-richest emirate in the UAE, is also interested in investing in Indonesian assets. Tanri said representatives from Dubai were expected to sign a joint-venture agreement with PT Pertamina that would increase the state oil and gas producer’s oil-refining capacity. 

“The value of this investment will be between $1 billion and $1.7 billion,” Tanri said. “[The deal] has come quite far and is now down to lawyer-to-lawyer negotiations. I expect the two sides to actually sign a joint-venture deal during the forum, rather than just a tentative memorandum of understanding.” 

On Jan. 9, Pertamina, Japan’s Itochu Corp. and Dubai-based ETA Star Property Developers announced plans to jointly increase Pertamina’s refining capacity in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan Province, from 260,000 barrels per day to 280,000 bpd by this year.  

Gita Wirjawan, founder of Jakarta-based private equity firm PT Ancora Investment Capital Management, said Indonesia was insulated from the worst of the global economic downturn because of its relatively small export sector. This, along with the country’s mineral resources, made it an attractive investment destination for oil-rich countries. 

“Compared with other countries, we are less dependent on exports. So if you had money, what would you do? It would be better to pour it into this country than an [export-led country] where growth is going to contract,” Gita said. “Don’t forget — investors from Qatar, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia have already invested billions of dollars here.” 

However, Eric Sugandhi, an economist at Standard Chartered Bank, cautioned that inward investment would probably not substantially offset the impact of the global slump. 

“I applaud [the Wief] for the investments, but they won’t come into play until around the second half or early next year.”