After 25 years of listing its stocks on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), Indonesia's largest cigarette producer, PT HM Sampoerna, finally saw its stocks included in the total valuation of the Jakarta Composite Index (JCI).
Sampoerna's stock price rose 0.54 percent to Rp 95,000 per share at Wednesday’s opening and became one of the top gainers. Its market capitalization reached Rp 440.6 trillion (US$31.4 billion), the largest in the country
HM Sampoerna CEO Paul Norman Janelle said that as a company that has been operating for more than a century in this country, the measure underscores its confidence in Indonesia, despite a current slowdown cause by external turmoil.
"The full inclusion of our shares in the JCI marks our commitment to support economic development in Indonesia and to increase Sampoerna's investment," he told the press on Wednesday in Jakarta.
Previously, HM Sampoerna was excluded from the stock market's benchmark valuation since its shares were illiquid. Only 1.8 percent of its outstanding shares were public, while Phillip Morris held 98.2 percent.
In September, Phillip Morris agreed to sell its holdings to the public through a rights offering to meet an IDX requirement obliging listed companies to have a minimum free float of 7.5 percent to add to market liquidity.
"We greatly appreciate the good response to Sampoerna's rights issue, which collected a net Rp 20.77 trillion," Norman said.
The IDX included the weight of HMSP-coded stock into the JCI’s price valuation gradually. It started from 25 percent on Nov. 4 and went to 50 percent on Nov. 18, 75 percent on Dec. 2 and finally 100 percent on Dec. 16. (ags)(+)
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