State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir has revealed how state-owned gas and oil firm Pertamina can reach a valuation target of US$100 billion.

“We will ensure that Pertamina’s sub-holdings will be a strong foundation towards the valuation target of US$100 billion,” he remarked at the virtual launch of a state-owned Krakatau Steel factory, accessed from here on Tuesday.

The target value has been fixed because Pertamina has entered the list of the 500 largest global companies, so the company’s valuation must keep increasing, he explained.

“It is important to maintain a firm foundation so that by 2024, Pertamina can have sales of US$92 billion and profits of US$8 billion, in order to hit the US$100-billion valuation target,” Thohir said.

“We consider our performance great as we focus on each sub-holding and make them the best expertise (in their field),” the minister remarked.

From the start, there has been potential for gas and oil new findings to reach 204 million barrels, Thohir noted. He said this is good news at a time when national production has been declining, he said.

In the second quarter of 2021, the upstream sector recorded a profit of US$1 billion, he noted.

“Refineries and petrochemicals were the burdens, (nevertheless) the sectors made US$280 million in profit,” Thohir added.

Earlier, the minister had said that he wanted Pertamina to achieve the target of becoming a corporation with a market value of US$100 billion after the establishment of its six sub-holdings.

He said that President Joko Widodo has expressed the hope that Pertamina will continue to improve public services, but the most important thing is to build an ecosystem so that it can compete on the global scale and encourage value addition.

Thohir further said that the company’s growth must be maintained in accordance with the five Key Performance Indicators of the ministry: balancing between corporate and public services, returning to core business and driving excellence, undertaking digital innovation and R&D to turn Pertamina into a technology company, and pushing human capital transformation.

During the past eight months, the SOEs Ministry has been working on transforming SOEs included in the 88 strategic SOEs project, which is scheduled to be completed by 2023. The project has been submitted to President Widodo.

Source: Antara News