Indonesia’s financial regulator has handed sanction letters to parties found to have violated trading rules involving three listed companies, with fines totalling 2.1 trillion rupiah, equivalent to US$116.67 million ($166.24 million), it said late on Wednesday.
The fines, linked to trading in PT Dian Swastatika Sentosa Tbk (IDX:DSSA), PT Barito Renewables Energy Tbk (IDX:BREN), and PT Petrindo Jaya Kreasi Tbk (IDX:CUAN), were the largest the regulator, known by its Indonesian abbreviation OJK, has ever imposed, its Chair Friderica Widyasari Dewi told reporters.
The OJK identified the sanctioned parties only by their initials.
The penalties were part of capital market reforms, OJK said last week, after MSCI (NYSE:MSCI) warned it could demote Indonesian equities from “emerging” to “standalone” market status because not enough was being done to combat coordinated trading practices in its stock market.
OJK said it imposed a 1.5 trillion rupiah (US$83.33 million) fine on a company identified as SMT for market manipulation of Dian Swastatika’s shares that led to a sharp increase in the price.
Dian Swastatika is part of Indonesian conglomerate Sinar Mas Group and operates in mining and energy.
A company identified as AH Ltd was fined 500 billion rupiah for obscuring information during the initial public offering of geothermal company Barito Renewables, while TC Pte Ltd was fined 100 billion rupiah for a similar offence related to the IPO of energy and mineral company Petrindo, OJK said.
Parties affiliated with the controlling shareholders of Barito Renewables and Petrindo were found to have concealed their affiliations and received a large portion of shares ahead of their respective IPOs, limiting the number of shares available on the market, the regulator said.
Barito Renewables and Petrindo are both controlled by Indonesian tycoon Prajogo Pangestu.
Those fined, Sinar Mas Group, and Pangestu could not immediately be reached for comment.
The regulator announced the fines on Friday but did not provide details. Dian Swastatika, Barito Renewables, and Petrindo separately said in stock exchange filings on Monday that they respected OJK’s law enforcement measures and would follow the rules.
The three companies were part of MSCI’s indices but were removed earlier this year.
OJK also said it fined several securities companies over stock market violations and temporarily froze underwriting permits held by two individuals. It identified the fined parties only by their initials.
(Reporting by Stefanno Sulaiman and Gayatri Suroyo in Jakarta; additional reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh; editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise and Kate Mayberry)
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