Is Indonesia's tighter policy on power utilities doing more harm than good?

摘要

When the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (MEMR) issued a new regulation in July that would tighten control over how power and geothermal companies transfer shares and change board members, analysts were quick to warn of its possibly strong deterrent effect on investors. Daniel Ginting, partner at Allen & Overy in Jakarta, explained that Reg. 42/2017 provides that most transfers of shares or participating interests in energy and mining companies and changes to the boards of directors and commissioners of such companies require prior approval from MEMR. "Whilst similar forms of governmental control already existed in the upstream oil & gas and the mining sectors, Reg. 42/2017 now extends these to the downstream oil & gas and power sectors, including geothermal," he said.