MIND ID President and DPR Legislator Get Into Heated Exchange

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The president-director of MIND ID or PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium, Orias Petrus Moedak, was reportedly involved in an argument with Democrat Party politician Muhammad Nasir in the House of Representatives (DPR) Commission VII hearing on Tuesday. 

The heated debate between Muhammad Nasir and Orias Petrus ended with one of them being ousted from the hearing. 

The argument began when Orias was initially explaining about the state-owned mining firm’s holding in issuing new securities valued at USD2.5 billion to refinance a number of debts that are due in upcoming years, especially in the main company at Inalum. The funds would also be used to acquire a 20 percent share from PT Vale Indonesia. 

“We will refinance USD500 million due for next year and another USD500 million for 2023. Which totals to USD1 billion. The rest will be used to refinance the debts of subsidiaries with high interests and USD500 million to purchase Vale,” Orias Petrus explained in the DPR hearing. 

Orias said that the firm will directly purchase the obligation from the obligation holder for the 2020 and 2023 bond debt refinancing. Inalum will then offer obligation holders with new obligations that have an extended tenor. 

By issuing these new bonds, the interest expense borne by the company will be 0.7 percent lower than the initial interest. Due to this strategy, the current interest rate is hovering at the level of 5.4 percent annually. 

“We offer older bondholders to sell them and exchange it with a longer tenor that would help reduce the pressure from the cashflow point of view. We managed to exchange USD 1 billion,” said Orias Petrus who argues that these kinds of practices are a norm among corporations. 

However, Commission VII Democrat Party legislator Muhammad Nasir constantly reminded Orias about MIND ID’s ability to pay those bonds and also questions the bond debt issuance mechanism that does not involve collateral. 

The Democrat Party legislator asserts that Orias is tasked to ensure that debt issues are solved and that the firm must not add more debts. He even went on to compare the MIND ID president to a high school student. 

“If that’s the case, a high school graduate can also replace your position at the firm,” said Nasir in the DPR hearing. 

Responding to Nasir, Orias assured that the firm is in a position of having strong financial standing, reflected in the total Rp42 trillion it has. He asserts that with future productivity already in place, the strategy does not need to be worried about. 

Amidst a heated exchange between the two, Nasir requested Orias to leave the meeting, which also saw Nasir banging his desk in frustration due to Orias’ statement that he will exit the room if asked and if his request is approved by hearing leaders. 

The heated exchange eventually dwindled after Commission VII House Speaker Alex Noerdin spoke and asked for the meeting to continue as scheduled.

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