Danantara and Lippo: No free lunch
Danantara has officially kicked off development of public housing project over 30 hectares of land ‘granted’ by Lippo Group in the controversial township project Meikarta, Cikarang, Bekasi, West Java province.
Merdeka Battery: Strong Q1, but…
Shares of nickel producer PT Merdeka Battery Materials Tbk (MBMA) ended lower by 0.4% to Rp494 on Monday (Jun 29) despite strong performance in the first quarter. Correction of nickel price in international market weighed on related stocks.
Trust deficit
Composite index of IDX (IHSG/JCI) ended lower by 1.28% Monday (Jun 29) on thin trading and continued net sell by foreign investors. A coordination meeting between the government’s economic team, the House of Representatives (DPR), and Bank Indonesia failed to impress the market.
Gaurav Srivastava, Hashim & Prabowo (2)
Big names are mentioned in the lawsuit filed by Niels Troost, former business partner of Gaurav Srivastava, including Bank Indonesia, Bank Mandiri, and Bank Bukopin (now KB) related to financial transactions between companies linked to Troost-Srivastava with Arsari Group, a company controlled by Hashim Djojohadikusumo (younger brother of President Prabowo Subianto).
The Next AI War Won’t Be About Intelligence
For the past three years, the global artificial intelligence race has been obsessed with one question: who has the smartest model? Every major release from OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, Meta, and China’s DeepSeek has been judged by benchmark scores, reasoning ability, coding performance, and the capacity to solve increasingly complex tasks.
Stop military training for KDMP/KNMP managers!
Basic military training for KDMP/KNMP managers has once again come under public scrutiny. The deaths of two participants during the program have now been followed by three more fatalities in recent days. As before, the Ministry of Defense has pledged to conduct a comprehensive evaluation. Yet the recurring incidents make one wonder whether participant safety was ever a central consideration in the program’s design.
Gaurav Srivastava, Hashim & Prabowo (1)
In this week’s edition, Tempo magazine posted three articles about Gaurav Srivastava, labelled as fake CIA operative by former business partner Niels Troost (Dutch-born controversial oil trader initially sanctioned by EU for his alleged links to Russian oil), and his network in Indonesia, including President Prabowo Subianto, brother Hashim Djojohadikusumo, and Indra Bakrie (Bakrie Group’s key person for oil and gas business).
MORA > Telkom + Tower operators
Shares of ICT company Ekamas Mora Republik (MORA), controlled by Sinarmas Group, ended lower by 3.5% to Rp7,575 last Friday (Jun 26). At this price, MORA was worth Rp362 trillion, substantially bigger than Telkom (TLKM), market leader in ICT business.
Further pressures on Bakrie’s media business
Visi Media Asia (VIVA), parent of TVOne and ANTV stations, has just released its financial report for the period ended March 31, 2026 alongside Intermedia Capital (MDIA), immediate parent of ANTV.
Week ahead
Iran has reportedly launched retaliatory attacks on US forces in Bahrain and Kuwait, while the US has bombed Iran, hitting some areas, following a drone attack on a commercial vessel near the Strait of Hormuz.