A frenzy of deal-making has broken out in Indonesia as corporates rush to unload their stakes in everything from property and industrial subsidiaries to banks and finance companies in the wake of the currency and stock market crisis.
Assisted by a lifting of all restrictions on foreign ownership of listed companies, indebted companies are seeking out investors overseas as well as conducting fire sales locally to shed unproductive assets.
The government has reactivated its privatization programme while the list of companies planning to launch IPOs - at virtually any price - is growing daily. Sales of stakes in companies by private arrangement are going ahead at a cracking pace.
At the consumer level, Indonesians are being offered deals at 50% off the price and the financing cost for everything from clothes to cars and from apartments and villas to overseas holidays.
Topping the list of the deal-makers are members of...
