Managers pitch for cross-border assets

Abiprayadi Riyanto, CEO of Mandiri Investasi, says about 60 per cent of the population is between 15 and 54 years of age. He says financial companies have surpassed resources businesses to command the largest capitalisations of the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Indonesia is the second-largest coal exporter in Asia. But Priyo Santoso, CIO of the $2-billion manager, says consumer spending accounts for 60 per cent of the Indonesian economy. This activity is no longer concentrated in Java, the most developed island of the archipelago and host to its capital, Jakarta. “Strong consumption growth now also comes from Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi,” Santoso says. He expects the credit rating of Indonesian sovereign debt to climb to investment grade this year and trigger huge inflows of foreign capital to the $77-billion market. Like other emerging markets, Indonesia is sometimes left reeling by flows of hot money from offshore investors, Santoso says. “We are not really shielded from the risk-on, risk-off trade. We are affected by volatility in global markets,” he says. But local participation in the market is increasing. “In the past, 60 per cent of the money was foreign. Now it’s the other way around.”

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The world won’t wait for the investment committee 

The institutions managing long-term savings might not be built to respond at the speed the world now moves. The gap between knowing and acting – which, ultimately, is where all risk lives – is one they can’t afford to keep open.

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