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View all search resultsGet Danantara back on track
In its second year, Danantara must prove that it can operate like a true global sovereign fund, by actively identifying high-upside commercial opportunities.
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An employee walks in the courtyard of Wisma Danantara Indonesia on Sept. 8, 2025, in Jakarta. (Antara/Dhemas Reviyanto)
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hen Danantara was launched a year ago, the agency was envisioned as one of the world’s largest sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). However, its investment decisions so far suggest that its focus has tilted toward supporting the government’s agenda rather than investing in profitable sectors and generating long-term returns like SWFs in other countries.
Danantara has announced several notable commercial investments, including a US$200 million commitment to Chandra Asri’s new petrochemical facility, which signals its intent to participate in strategic industrial projects.
Yet, many of its other moves appear less like disciplined portfolio-building and more like extensions of the government’s economic development agenda.
These include capital injections into struggling state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as Garuda Indonesia and Krakatau Steel, plans to develop waste-to-energy plants across the country, land acquisition in Saudi Arabia for a proposed haj village and a planned $1 billion investment to convert Lippo Group’s Meikarta land into a subsidized housing complex.
The sheer scale of these government-linked projects, many of which remain in the planning phase, has raised questions about whether Danantara already has too much on its plate to seriously pursue commercially driven investments.
This may explain why Danantara has opted for venturing into red-ocean sectors with long-established business models already dominated by private players.
The agency, for instance, has announced plans to develop an integrated poultry facility and to establish a new state-owned textile company, despite the fact that many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country operate in the sector.
