Indonesia lawmakers draft bill to slash foreign ownership of plantations

[Art or Science]

Piece of old news but reckon this will have quite a major impact on the likes of Golden Agri if this bill does go through..

-----------
Indonesian lawmakers are looking to restrict foreign ownership of plantations to no more than 30 percent, as the top palm oil producer tries to maximise land usage, protect indigenous people and tighten environmental controls in the sector.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/08/1...X620140815

[mohican]

Can't imagine the law being passed as described as it would be extremely challenging to implement. I see a parallel in the change in foreign ownership restrictions for the banking sector i.e. a lot of hyperbole and speculation that foreign parties will have to divest or pare down their interest but in the end, the new law was not retroactive.

In addition, under Indonesian regulations, public shareholders in a locally-listed company are generally not considered foreign so there will probably be loopholes where players like GAR can exploit, not to mention in GAR's case, where the ultimate shareholders are obviously Indonesian.

But Indonesia never fails to surprise and with a new president coming on board, I guess you never know.