Trimming PTPN Board Of Directors, Erick Thohir: Severe Conditions Due To Debt Of IDR 48 Trillion

JAKARTA - The Ministry of State-Owned Enterprises (BUMN) carried out a major overhaul of state-owned plantation companies, starting from PTPN I to XIV. The transformation was carried out through a plantation holding, namely PT Perkebunan Nusantara III (Persero).

BUMN Minister Erick Thohir explained that during the reshuffle he was forced to remove many directorships, including all 14 PTPN chief directors and only left one director.

"PTPN is in a tough condition, with all due respect we are carrying out massive efficiency. Yesterday we had to cut a lot of directors, but only one director was not the holding. Because PTPN holding has a total debt of Rp. 48 trillion," he said in a working meeting with the Commission. VI DPR, Tuesday, June 9.

The efficiency of the board of directors is not carried out at PTPN III. As the holding holding company, PTPN III still has a complete board of directors.

As well as efficiency in the PTPN holding body, Erick included Perum Perhutani in the plantation cluster. With this merger, there will be 130 thousand hectares of sugarcane plantation that will be owned, and 140 thousand of them will be added per hectare.

Erick said that the merger of PTPN and Perhutani would increase sugarcane production by 7 tons per hectare. If this is realized, PTPN will transform into the backbone of national sugar production, particularly to meet the need for 3.5 million tons of consumption sugar so that there is no need to rely on imports.

"But I think industrial sugar imports must be carried out until whenever. But for PTPN consumption with Perhutani we must synergize it so that future self-sufficiency can be carried out," he explained.

In addition, Erick revealed, his party did not want the debt that tangle with the PTPN holding to sacrifice the plasma sugarcane nucleus program for the people and other plantations that absorb a lot of labor intensive. Because of that, Erick plans to do a massive debt restructuring within the PTPN holding body.

"Therefore, PTPN inevitably gets bailout funds so that cash flow can remain good. But there will also be major restructuring programs such as Krakatau Steel," he said.

Erick explained that Krakatau Steel had completed its debt restructuring, which reached US $ 2.2 billion (US) or equivalent to Rp.30.8 trillion earlier this year. According to him, this debt restructuring is the largest in the history of BUMN.

It should be noted, the PTPN group is one of the largest plantation companies in the world with a plantation concession area of 1.17 million hectares. The plantation portfolio includes various commodities, including oil palm, sugar cane, rubber, tea, coffee, tobacco and cocoa, as well as their respective downstream products.