Jakarta. Indonesia’s sovereign wealth fund Danantara is in talks with the French mining giant Eramet, while also exploring the possibility of including a petrochemical project backed by South Korean conglomerate Lotte in its portfolio.

Danantara’s chief executive officer Rosan Roeslani recently updated reporters on the foreign partners’ interest in the fund -- a day after he revealed that the superholding now encompasses all 844 Indonesian state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which include its parent companies, subsidiaries, and sub-subsidiaries. Earlier this week, President Prabowo Subianto hosted a group of South Korean businesspeople, with Lotte Corporation chairman Shin Dong-bin joining. Lotte Chemical Indonesia is currently constructing a large-scale petrochemical complex in Cilegon, Banten Province, with an investment reaching a whopping $3.9 billion. This factory is set to enter commercial production in the second half of this year.

“President [Prabowo] told Lotte that he was open to having Danantara participate in their petrochemical project. We [Danantara] actually have been talking with Lotte on this matter. We are studying the possibility,” Rosan said at a news conference in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Rosan said that he had spoken with Eramet’s top brass regarding a possible investment deal with Danantara with the partnership centering on helping Indonesia move up the nickel value chain. 

Eramet’s main operation in the mineral-rich country is its Weda Bay Nickel mine, which lies in North Maluku’s Halmahera. The Weda Bay Nickel is a joint venture that Eramet runs with Chinese stainless steelmaker Tsingshan and state-run miner Antam. Tsingshan owns the majority stake at 51.3 percent, while Eramet holds 37.8 percent. Antam’s shares at Weda Bay Nickel stands at 10 percent, and is also among the companies that is now part of Danantara. The mine accounts for 17 percent of the global nickel production in 2023.

“Eramet wishes to invest more in Weda Bay Nickel. I invited them to work with Danantara so we can invest together. We are open, especially since this is related to industrial processing. They are also one of the biggest European companies in this field,” Rosan stated.

Indonesia has repeatedly expressed Danantara’s willingness to do business with foreign partners. Most recently, Danantara and Qatar Investment Authority agreed to establish a $4 billion joint investment fund. Each agency will contribute $2 billion each to the fund that will target high-priority sectors such as renewable energy and healthcare. Just last week, Rosan claimed that Danantara had also been talking to two other foreign funds, although the minister did not say their country of origin. 

Danantara’s investment portfolio is set to include petrochemicals, oil refineries, food production, and building the production chain of minerals (i.e. nickel, bauxites, copper). However, the agency only plans to put their money in investment-ready projects, by making assessments beforehand.

Indonesia reported that it had recorded nearly $683.3 million investment from South Korea in the first quarter of 2025. Official figures showed that about $85 million worth of French investments went to Indonesia over the said three-month period.