Nickel for November delivery ended slightly lower by 0.6% to US$15,290 per ton on the London Metal Exchange (LME) Wednesday (Aug 27). That means the commodity lost 10.8% year-on-year, attributable to persistent oversupply and subdued demand, including from EV battery. Sovereign wealth fund Danantara, however, opted to bet more on the commodity.

Subsidiaries of state oil and gas company Pertamina, one key operating unit of sovereign wealth fund Danantara, appointed more active politicians in the board of commissioners, raising more concerns about governance in state companies.

US’ Baker Hughes, an energy technology giant firm providing solution for upstream, midstream, and downstream, has secured a comprehensive 90-month service agreement award from BP, energy firm, for working on liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in West Papua. 

Recently, Danantara sent 36 directors of the 29 state-owned enterprises under the sovereign fund institution to the Top Gun Leadership Camp in Lausanne, Switzerland, held on August 20-24, 2025. The CEO, Rosan Roeslani, stated that this program served as a manifestation of Danantara’s commitment to supporting human resource transformation in the SOEs. On the contrary, the public saw it as nothing more than a total waste of money.

President Prabowo’s administration, with Finance Minister Sri Mulyani at the helm, has set one of the most ambitious tax targets in Indonesia’s history. In the 2026 draft state budget (RAPBN), the government aims to collect Rp2,357.7 trillion in taxes—an increase of 13.5 percent from the previous year. The tax ratio is expected to reach nearly 10 percent of GDP.

During the cabinet limited, President Prabowo provided specific instructions to accelerate the waste-to-energy (WtE) management program, which will be funded by Danantara, within 18 months, with the administrative process shortened to three months from the originally six months. This is one of the programs to be funded with proceeds from Rp50 trillion ‘patriot bonds’.

Structure of the Rp50 trillion bonds to be issued by sovereign wealth fund Danantara doesn’t suggest it is anything close to the famous ‘Patriot Bonds’ issued by the US. It is just like regular bonds. The difference: investors should feel like ‘being extorted’ to participate, but Danantara or the State will award them with ‘patriot’ status.

PT Krakatau Posco, a joint venture between Pohang Steel Co (Posco) and state steel manufacturer PT Krakatau Steel Tbk (KRAS), started commercial operation of crude steel facility in March 2014. The plan was to pour another US$3.5 billion to boost capacity. What happened since?

Shares of steel manufacturer PT Gunung Raja Paksi Tbk (GGRP) ended lower by 3.4% to Rp230 on Tuesday (Aug 26). That means the stock has lost 66% its value since September 2024 following divestment of one operating subsidiary. 

On March 3rd, 2025, we published an article titled ‘Signs of economic slowdown’, where we quoted some people within President Prabowo Subianto’s inner circle about a plan to issue US$100 billion worth of 100-year bonds similar to the Patriot bonds issued by the US government.