Officially Take The Floor On The Exchange, PGE Has Bright Business Prospects

JAKARTA - PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy Tbk (PGEO) has excellent business prospects. Especially, after officially registering the initial public offering (IPO) on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX)

Director of the Center for Energy Policy M. Kholid Sheikhzi said he was optimistic that this would come if he saw the prospect of geothermal business as promising.

"Especially because in the future, all parties will focus more on new and renewable energy which is much cleaner," Kholid said, quoting Antara.

On the other hand, he also believes that PGE's management and performance will also increase in the future. This is because issuers are indeed required to carry out corporate governance properly, including implementing the principles of transparency and accountability.

"The management of the company will be transparent and this will be a "benchmark" for other SOEs in good corporate governance," he said.

He also assessed that the entry of PGE to the stock exchange floor did bring many benefits. In addition to improving governance and performance, the company also received funding without the obligation to return it.

According to him, these funds are very much needed to finance the energy mix, which currently has a capacity of still 2-3 percent nationally.

"These funds are urgently needed because the development of geothermal energy requires a very large cost," said Kholid.

For example, he said, PGE is currently participating in auctions in two geothermal mining working areas (WKP). These efforts, of course, require a strong capital structure.

Through the IPO, he hopes to have an impact on the capital structure so that PGE becomes a major player in steam and electricity production sourced from geothermal in Indonesia.

"Borrowing money to banks or financial institutions must be high. The IPO is the best way to increase capital," he said.

He said the PGE IPO was also in line with the government's plan to increase the supply of 7 gigawatts (GW) of geothermal power plants (PLTP) by 2030.

The reason, said Kholid, is that the power plant's new energy mix (EBT) is currently still in the range of 14.1 percent, still far from the target of 23 percent.

In that context, he said, it needs to be reviewed from a number of aspects so that there is nothing to worry about with this PGE IPO.

"Let's just call it the aspects of governance, investment, even including aspects of legality and the constitution. Everything has been fulfilled. Moreover, the Constitutional Court (MK) has stated that the shares of SOE children/grandsons may be sold," he said.

Likewise, the release of shares by 25 percent, according to Kholid, has not changed the ownership of government shares by cq Pertamina against the company's management.

Therefore, he said that as the majority shareholder, Pertamina as the holding company still controls management.