Indonesia Investment Authority (INA), the country’s sovereign wealth fund, is looking to tap overseas investors as it seeks to deepen its focus on green investments, a top INA officer told reporters on Thursday.
INA chief risk officer Thomas Sugiarto Oentoro said the wealth fund was reviewing several opportunities in green investments. “Geothermal energy is one possibility,” the INA executive said. INA has previously invested in Indonesian geothermal firm PT Pertamina Geothermal Tbk.
INA may either consider increasing its exposure in Pertamina Geothermal or look for other investments, he added.
INA along with Abu Dhabi renewable energy firm Masdar acquired a 20% stake in Pertamina Geothermal in February last year for $480 million.
Besides geothermal energy, INA is also reviewing solar power and nature-based solutions such as mangrove restoration.
INA will directly invest in sustainable or green projects alongside external foreign investors from regions like the US, Europe, and the Middle East. However, he did not specify a fixed allocation for green investments.
In 2023, INA reported that the wealth fund and its co-investors disbursed $1.9 billion, up 152.6% year-on-year. INA made six investments across the health, infrastructure, digital infrastructure, geothermal, and logistics sectors during the year.
The new investments resulted in an increase of 37.7 trillion rupiah ($2.3 billion) in INA’s total assets under management (AUM), bringing its total AUM to 147.6 trillion rupiah by the end of 2023.
Since its inception in 2021, INA has invested in a spate of companies and projects with its investment partners across infrastructure and digital sectors.
It has invested $150 million in Kimia Farma Apotek with the Chinese SWF Silk Road Fund; $200 million in Pertamedika with HK-based firm Swire Pacific; $800 million in the initial public offering of telecom tower firm Mitratel along with GIC, Abu Dhabi Growth Fund (ADG), and ADIA (Abu Dhabi Investment Authority); and $200 million in the development of a hyperscale data centre in Batam.
Among other deals, it invested $100 million in three modern warehouse assets in Greater Jakarta with Mitsubishi Corporation and ESR; $1 billion in two toll-road assets in Trans Sumatra network; $300 million in an international terminal in Belawan with DP World; $400 million in toll road assets in Trans Java with ADIA and APG; $400 million in the IPO of Pertamina Geothermal with Masdar; and $300 million in financing facility for Traveloka with BlackRock, Orion Capital Asia, and Allianz Global Investors.
Meanwhile, during the press briefing, Yayasan Kehati, a biodiversity-focused Indonesian non-profit organisation, said it was planning to launch an impact investment fund. Kehati executive director Riki Frindos said the organisation will seek support from venture capital firms, high-net-worth individuals, and INA to set up the fund.
“We will design the fund based on the preferences of our potential partners ranging from being entirely non-profit to including potential return,” he said.
