The Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) remained upbeat Friday over its target of having 15 new companies going public in 2009 despite concerns that the global financial downturn will spiral further down and discourage companies that seek to expand.

"We only target 15 new initial public offerings (IPOs) next year because the global crisis has caused the prices of shares to drop drastically," said IDX president director Erry Firmansyah.

The IDX has also cut its target for the value of daily transactions by 31.25 percent to Rp 2.75 trillion (US$242 million), down from an estimated Rp 4 trillion per day this year.

Early this year, the IDX targeted to net 30 IPOs this year before it revised the target downward in November to 20, following the world capital market collapse in October.

However, until now only 19 new companies launched IPOs.

Several companies, including state-owned steel company PT Krakatau Steel and national airline flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia, have postponed their IPO launches this year due to the meltdown.

"We have been working harder to ensure prospective companies that this capital market turmoil will only be temporary," Erry said.

The IDX now lists 396 companies.

In July, the IPO of coal company PT Adaro Energy successfully booked US$1.3 billion, becoming the country's second largest IPO.

The IDX has also revised down the proceeds target from the issue of corporate bonds this year to Rp 15 trillion (US$1.6 billion) from Rp 40 trillion targeted earlier.

This means the market will see a 52 percent drop in corporate bond issue proceeds this year, as compared to Rp 31.27 trillion last year.(hwa)

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