On Friday, October 8 2021, a guest lecture was held on the topic "Supervision of Mergers and Acquisitions in the Digital Economy Sector in Indonesia: Future Challenges and Platforms" by presenting the chairman of the Republic of Indonesia's Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU), namely Mr. Kodrat Wibowo, SE, Ph. .D. This event, which was held online via Zoom, was guided by a moderator, namely Dr. Nurul Istifadah, SE, M.Si, one of the lecturers in the Department of Economics, Faculty of Economics and Business Universitas Airlangga .
In his presentation, the chairman of the KPPU started the presentation of the material with the history of Indonesian politics in the past which did not provide enough space for everyone to become successful entrepreneurs due to quite massive practices of corruption and nepotism. At this time, according to him, business opportunities are wide enough open for anyone, so the chances of success are very open. Apart from that, he also explained the background to the establishment of the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU), the legal basis for the establishment of the institution and the role and objectives of the institution.
Apart from that, he also said that one type of business that is experiencing an increase is business in the digital sector, where the players are dominated by the millennial generation. Businesses in the digital sector create their own challenges for the dynamics of business competition, especially related to mergers and acquisitions of businesses in the digital sector.
Furthermore, he took the latest example of how merger and acquisition practices occur in the digital sector, namely when Grab acquired Uber in Indonesia and also occurred in several other countries such as Thailand, the Philippines and Singapore. The three Grabs were fined due to this acquisition practice in other countries, this did not happen in Indonesia. This is based on the regulations of Law No. 5 of 1999 articles 28 and 29 which are no longer relevant. To get around this, KPPU issued PerKPPU No. 3 of 2019 where regulations are aligned with Ministerial Regulations (Permen). The essence of the PerKPPU is that takeover is not only limited to the transfer of shares, but also other instruments that have the same characteristics as shares which can cause changes in control of the Business Entity, must be reported to the KPPU.
Furthermore, the speaker also discussed derivative regulations related to purchasing company assets which could threaten the level of business competition in the digital sector.
The presentation of the material was then followed by a question and answer session. Many questions from the participants were related to acquisitions and mergers in digital sector businesses.
The complete recording of the guest lecture can be seen at the following link:
