The State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) Ministry is preparing major corporate action plans for several state-owned companies and their subsidiaries for 2021, according to Deputy Minister Kartika “Tiko” Wirjoatmodjo.

Tiko said on Wednesday that the corporate actions included integrating state-owned micro financing firm PT Permodalan Nasional Madani (PNM) and state-owned pawnshop PT Pegadaian with state-owned Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI).

The ministry also plans to continue pushing the merger of three sharia subsidiaries of state-owned banks, as well as to take state-owned telecommunication giant PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia’s (Telkom) telecommunication tower subsidiary PT Dayamitra Telekomunikasi (Mitratel) public next year.

“We hope that these major corporate actions can create positive sentiment for both domestic and overseas investors,” Tiko said during an online media briefing.

He went on to say that the ministry was currently seeking approval to allow the integration between BRI, PNM and Pegadaian.

SOEs Minister Erick Thohir stated on Monday at a hearing with the House of Representatives that the integration of the three companies was aimed at boosting the financing for micro enterprises in Indonesia, as reported by kompas.com.

“As we can see, PNM has a really good business model, but the financing [source] is very costly,” he said, adding that BRI could bring in funds at lower interest rates.

Meanwhile, the ministry is also working on merging three state-owned banks’ sharia subsidiaries, Bank Syariah Mandiri (BSM), BNI Syariah and publicly listed BRI Syariah, as it aims to create the country’s biggest sharia bank by next February.

The banks signed a conditional merger agreement (CMA) on Oct. 12.

Read also: State-owned banks form biggest sharia bank in subsidiaries merger

“We will continue our preparations so that the merger can hopefully be completed by February of next year,” Bank Mandiri vice president director Hery Gunardi said on Oct. 13.

The government has long floated the idea of creating a stronger sharia bank to provide larger funding for the country’s economic recovery and to help improve the Islamic finance sector.

With the merger, BRI Syariah will be the surviving entity of the merger given its publicly listed status, while BSM’s parent company, Bank Mandiri, will hold the biggest stake of 51.2 percent in the bank as it owns the largest share of assets of the three.

Other than creating the country’s biggest sharia bank, the merger would also make the bank the seventh or eighth biggest bank in the country with total assets of Rp 220 trillion (US$15.6 billion) to Rp 225 trillion.

Meanwhile, the initial public offering (IPO) for Mitratel is also an important step for Telkom. With the state-owned telco company seeing dwindling revenue from its legacy business, it has sought to strengthen its tower business operated by Mitratel.

“In time, we will need to unlock Mitratel, either through an IPO or strategic partnership,” Telkom vice president of investor relations Andi Setiawan said on Oct. 1.

Mitratel’s business is projected to continue to expand against the backdrop of a growing market driven by the transition to 4G and a strong customer base with predictable revenue streams, as the tower business offers long-term contracts.

Read also: Fundraising to increase as more SMEs, SOE subsidiaries go public in 2021: Deloitte

The ministry is also continuing its work to create SOE holding firms. The establishment of the holding companies is part of the ministry’s effort to make the state-owned firms more efficient by slimming down clusters.

Minister Erick has slashed the number of SOE business clusters to 14 from 27.

The planned holdings include a hotel holding firm that will comprise 22 hotels owned by hotel chain PT Hotel Indonesia Natour (HIN) and PT Pegadaian, among others, said Tiko. PT Wika Realty, a property subsidiary of construction firm PT Wijaya Karya (Wika), will lead the holding.

Meanwhile, Tiko also said that the government plans to create a tourism holding firm that will be led by charter airline PT Survai Udara Penas.

The tourism holding will consist of national flag carrier PT Garuda Indonesia, airport operator PT Angkasa Pura (AP) I and AP II, Indonesia Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC), HIN and tourist destination operator PT Taman Wisata Candi (TWC) Borobudur, Prambanan and Ratu Boko temples.

President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo announced on Aug. 6 that he was considering forming a holding company for aviation and tourism SOEs and developing international hub airports in an effort to revive the industries, which have been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I think the current tourism downturn is the right moment to start consolidation and transformation in the tourist and aviation sectors, and we could establish an SOE holding firm [for] a unified vision,” he said during a limited Cabinet meeting in Jakarta at the time.