Criticized By Purbaya, Danantara Explains Reasons For Buying SBN Using BUMN Dividends

Managing Director of Treasury Danantara, Ali Setiawan (center) (Photo: Mery Handayani/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Investment Management Agency (BPI) Daya Anagata Nusantara (Dantara) has raised its voice regarding the reason for choosing to place funds from SOE dividends in Government Securities (SBN).

Managing Director of Treasury Danantara, Ali Setiawan said dividends were indeed one of the regular capitals that Danantara received. He said the incoming capital was then regulated by treasury to provide funding, both to strategic projects, commercial projects, and public investment.

However, Ali said that in order to manage the capital owned, Danantara did not want to place the entire fund in risky investments or long-term investments alone.

"It is impossible that the money that has been entrusted to our friends here in Danantara, we will immediately put it in adiemin, or we will also immediately put it directly into risky projects," he said in a media briefing in Jakarta, Friday, November 28.

According to him, this practice is also used to being carried out by sovereign wealth funds (SWF) in the world. In fact, he said that SWFs in an aggressive world like Saudi Arabia always have 20 to 30 servings of funds that are reserved in liquid instruments, in this case government bonds.

Therefore, said Ali, the placement of funds in SBN is a liquid investment, whose funds can be used at any time needed.

"Because at any time, when these funds are needed, we can liquidate them. We can withdraw them again, or our event can be processed, for example, in repo, for example, to find liquidity in the market," said Ali.

Furthermore, Ali said, treasury division is also unlikely to place all funds on investments that are not liquid.

All departments that manage sheet balance must be able to think about how we divide the fund. It's impossible for all of them to be illiquid," said Ali.

Previously, Minister of Finance (Menkeu) Purbaya Yudhi Sadive criticized Danantara's move to place some funds into government bond instruments.

At the Danantara Supervisory Board (Dewas) Meeting on October 15, 2025, Purbaya highlighted the amount of funds from the BUMN dividend that Danantara placed in SBN. In fact, he also questioned the expertise of the Investment Management Agency.

"I was criticized earlier. If you put so many bonds in the government, what is your expertise?," said Purbaya at Wisma Danantara, Jakarta, Wednesday, October 15.