Rajawali Buys 23.6% of Nusantara Infrastructure

Indonesia’s Rajawali Group said it bought a 23.6 percent stake in construction company PT Nusantara Infrastructure for about 448 billion rupiah ($49.7 million) today to support its mining business. 

Rajawali bought 3.2 billion Nusantara shares from Infrastructure Growth Fund at 140 rupiah apiece, or 36 percent below yesterday’s closing price. Shares of Nusantara jumped 11 percent to 245 rupiah at the 4 p.m. close in Jakarta, beating the 1.6 percent drop in the benchmark stock index. 

“Part of our business is mining and that’s closely related to infrastructure projects such as roads, ports and railways,” Darjoto Setyawan, managing director at Rajawali, said by phone today. “If someone offered more shares in Nusantara we’d like to buy them.” 

Jakarta-based Nusantara, which operates toll roads, may benefit from Rajawali’s entrance as faster economic growth boosts demand for commodities such as coal and metals. Southeast Asia’s biggest economy may expand as much as 6.5 percent next year from an estimated 6 percent this year, the central bank said Nov. 25. 

“The share sale is good for Nusantara as this may allow them to get new infrastructure projects from Rajawali,” said Ikhsan Binarto, an analyst at PT Indo Premier Securities. Source: Bloomberg