Indonesia’s Danantara pledges $5 billion to home-grown companies as MSCI once again threatens a downgrade

Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara plans to invest $5 billion in Indonesian businesses over the next six to nine months, its chief investment officer said, a commitment made before MSCI proposed downgrading the country to standalone status, a move that has since sent the Jakarta Composite Index down 11.6%.

“We’re encouraging our guys to focus on the fundamentals of Indonesian businesses because they’re growing healthily,” Pandu Sjahrir, Danantara’s chief investment officer, told Fortune on the sidelines of the DBS Asia Future Forward Conference in Singapore on Oct. 12. “Why wouldn’t we be buyers of these types of businesses? It’s our job to look at, support and buy great companies.”

This comes as the sovereign wealth fund, launched by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto in 2025, steps up as a stabilizer for the country’s stock market, currently under scrutiny from global index providers like MSCI.

On Oct. 15, days after Fortune’s interview with Pandu, MSCI proposed downgrading the country from emerging-market to standalone status. This would remove Indonesian stocks from MSCI’s emerging and frontier-market indices and prompt investment funds to consider reducing their exposure to the country. The country has until April 2027 to enact reforms. (Indonesia recently preserved its Secondary Emerging status in FTSE Russell’s annual count)

That news sparked an 11.6% plunge in the benchmark Jakarta Composite Index.........

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