Indonesia's Financial Services Authority said it found orchestrated trading in PT Dian Swastatika Sentosa's shares carried out through multiple brokerages. Separate investigations found abuses during the IPO share allocations for PT Barito Renewables Energy and PT Petrindo Jaya Kreasi.
According to the regulator, parties connected to controlling shareholders masked their identities to grab outsized IPO allotments. That behavior tightened ownership and reduced the pool of shares available to trade.
Penalties tied to Dian Swastatika reached 1.5 trillion rupiah, equal to $83.2 million. Fines related to Barito Renewables were 500 billion rupiah, and those linked to Petrindo Jaya Kreasi were 100 billion rupiah.
The sanctions cover a mix of underwriters, traders, organizations that handled IPO share distribution, and end owners associated with the three companies. No names were disclosed. Dian Swastatika is part of Franky Widjaja's Sinar Mas Group, while Barito Renewables and Petrindo Jaya Kreasi are affiliated with billionaire Prajogo Pangestu. The companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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At a hastily called event at the Indonesia Stock Exchange's Jakarta headquarters, the announcement was made with members of parliament, the country's top police official, plus leaders of sovereign wealth fund Danantara in attendance. The regulator said these cases were already under review and were not launched in response to MSCI's move.
Earlier the same day, MSCI said Indonesia failed to satisfy its emerging market requirements and may be shifted to standalone status, which could push the country out of MSCI's global indexes. Stocks tumbled, with the market closing down 12%. All three sanctioned companies had already been removed from the MSCI Indonesia Index in May.
Indonesia has been trying to shore up trust since late January, when MSCI raised flags about opaque ownership and limited trading float. In the wake of that warning, both the bourse and the financial regulator saw resignations, and authorities rolled out rules to raise free float and sharpen ownership transparency. In plain English: more tradable shares and clearer who-owns-what are designed to make the market easier to invest in. Whether that is enough to satisfy MSCI will drive index inclusion and, by extension, foreign fund flows.
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