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AKARTA: The House of Representatives is planning to soon summon the state enterprises minister and the executive board of Garuda Indonesia over “too low” price of the national flag carrier’s initial public offering (IPO) shares.

Lawmaker Arif Budimanta of the House’s Commission XI overseeing financial and banking sectors said the House deemed the government as having failed to “exercise its authority” to ensure a maximum price for the IPO shares, which have been set at Rp 750 (US$0.08) per share. “What I see is that they’re forcing the IPO of Garuda when the market is not in good condition,” he said, as reported by tempointeraktif.com Sunday.

Arif said the government should have used the IPO process to earn maximum capital inflow for the state-owned company.

“They shouldn’t sell [the shares] at cheap price. [Garuda] has clear market; how come they offer the share at Rp 750? The market even wants lower price, but it’ll be hard if they just bow to the pressure.” — JP