State-Owned Construction Companies to Merge

CORPORATE ACTION - JAKARTA. PT PP (Persero) Tbk (PTPP), one of Indonesia's largest state-owned construction companies, has responded to the plan by Erick Thohir, the Minister of State-Owned Enterprises, to merge seven state-owned construction companies into three entities. One of the proposed mergers is between PTPP and PT Wijaya Karya (Persero) Tbk (WIKA).

Bakhtiyar Efendi, Corporate Secretary of PTPP, said that the merger plan has been discussed for quite some time. The Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises has also conducted a study on the plan to merge the seven construction companies.

"We are still waiting for the detailed results, so we are still waiting for the official details of the merger process and the merger system," Bakhtiyar said in Jakarta on Thursday (21/3).

Bakhtiyar explained that PTPP also participated in the study conducted by the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises. PTPP was asked to submit a number of data related to the company's competencies, strengths, and weaknesses for assessment.

PTPP's management is still waiting for the results of the study, especially regarding the merger system that will be implemented in the future.

"We are still waiting for the results of the study, whether it will still be focused on each company, because each construction company has its own outstanding competencies," he added.

According to Bakhtiyar, the consolidation plan from the Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises must have a good basis. This is because the seven construction companies currently have similar competencies and can all bid on the same project.

"This is one of the evaluations. So there is no specialization, everyone can work on dams, toll roads, and so on, so everyone is a jack of all trades. We want to specialize," he said.

The seven state-owned construction companies that are being merged are: